The Jewel in the Crown

This first volume—with the other three—is, I think, the best book ever written about the British in India and their leaving of it. The whole story is rooted in a rape that happens to a young Englishwoman, whose lover is accused of the crime. I first read this when it came out in 1980, before the amazingly good TV series. There are so many unforgettable characters in it—the women, trying to survive with husbands and fathers away in the army, the missionaries and nuns, as well as the men. Scott does not in any way idealize… show more.

Four books means a major investment of time, but you’ll be rewarded. And it’s stretching a bit to call this Southeast Asia fiction—the setting is India, but one character has a bad dream about being sent to Malaya. But I had to fit this one in. The time is World War II and the early years of Indian independence. I wouldn’t try to count how many characters, British and Indian, inhabit the pages. They’re so lifelike that you see them as family and worry over mundane things like whether they should go somewhere by road or train. Along the way,… show more.

I read all four novels in the Raj Quartet (The Jewel being the first) in the 1980s and they have stayed with me ever since – absolutely riveting historical fiction. Set during and after World War 2 in India (where Scott himself served in the army) it follows the lives of a British Raj army family trying to hold onto their way of life as the political and social tectonic plates shift towards Independence. There is a brilliant array of characters – both principled and flawed – from army wives and missionaries to Indian nationalists and elites. It made me… show more.