Paul Scott and His India
Contents: Preface. 1. Life and times. 2. Earlier British authors and their India. 3. British India. 4. The early novels. 5. The Raj Quartet. 6. The last stay. 7. A comparative stance. 8. Endgame. Appendix. Bibliography.
Paul Scott and his India presents a gripping graphics of a country in which Scott set his novels. The book traces the growth of his fictional art even as he considered this nation a personal metaphor for his creative acumen. He has touched almost all facets of a country shaking off the yoke of the British imposition - his men and women inhabit a real world touched by personal failures and jubilations - but what transpires finally is a unique objectivity of approach not found in the earliest British authors writing about India. Scott carves a special niche for himself as he moves from his first novel, Johnnie Sahib, to his last, staying on. Even thought his chief characters are mostly the whites, they do not exist in a sequestered world but are affected by their interaction with Indians - princes, magistrates, revolutionaries, Anglo-Indians - there is an epic opulence of sensibility, whether it be the expansive Raj Quartet or shades of sibling rivalry in the alien sky. (jacket)
Paul Scott and his India presents a gripping graphics of a country in which Scott set his novels. The book traces the growth of his fictional art even as he considered this nation a personal metaphor for his creative acumen. He has touched almost all facets of a country shaking off the yoke of the British imposition - his men and women inhabit a real world touched by personal failures and jubilations - but what transpires finally is a unique objectivity of approach not found in the earliest British authors writing about India. Scott carves a special niche for himself as he moves from his first novel, Johnnie Sahib, to his last, staying on. Even thought his chief characters are mostly the whites, they do not exist in a sequestered world but are affected by their interaction with Indians - princes, magistrates, revolutionaries, Anglo-Indians - there is an epic opulence of sensibility, whether it be the expansive Raj Quartet or shades of sibling rivalry in the alien sky. (jacket)
