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Division of the Spoils
 
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Division of the Spoils (Paperback)

de Paul Scott (Author)
5.0étoiles sur 5  Voir tous les commentaires (3 évaluations de client)

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Review

Fourth and final volume in Scott's majestic "Raj Quartet" dealing with the declining years of the "British presence" in India - here in 1945-47 hurriedly and expediently dissipating. For the most part the observer is Sgt. Perron, an upper-class English historian whose lightly cynical insistence on rank permits him a cover of flexibility. It is Perron who temporarily prevents the suicide of a shattered countryman who enunciates a truth, later to be fleshed out: that Britain's "moral obligation" to Victoria's Jewel in the Crown was in reality an obligation to property - a concept no longer viable. We meet again the Layton family, other English diplomats and military career men, and a number of Indian politicians - primarily the scrupulous Kasim. Beyond Gandhi-Nehru-Jinnah Indian nationalism, Kasim takes the long, essentially anachronistic, view that the law and its contracts must be honored. However, it is the young British-educated Indian, Kumar, and the British police officer, Merrick (Merrick's outrages against Kumar's soul and person were explored in The Day of the Scorpion [1968])who symbolize the corrupt illusions on which power feeds. In England, Kumar was a British-style monument to virtue (a brown-skinned gentleman on the cricket field); while lower middle-class Merrick was invisible. But back in India, Kumar is an alien. Merrick, hiding his racial hatreds, his homosexual tendencies and his insecurities even from himself, is also a victim of the well-born Britons who never cared about Empire and to whom "God-the-Father-God-the-raj was a lot of insular middle- and lower-class shit." Again Scott marks the "nuances of time and history flowing softly." The way he portrays the stooped shoulders of a bush-shirt hanging on a chair is as eloquent an expression of the "grand irrelevance of history to the things people wanted for themselves" as any political pronouncement or act of violence. The "Raj Quartet" is a commanding achievement. (Kirkus Reviews)


Product Description

The final novel of a quartet which began with "The Jewel in the Crown". As the British presence in India moves into its last days, the fall of the Enpire signals the end of an era, and a new beginning. For the Hindus and Muslims, the political reality signals inevitable post-war recriminations.
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5.0étoiles sur 5 Coming full circle....., Mai 5 2001
Par Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - Voir tous mes commentaires
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
A DIVISION OF THE SPOILS by Paul Scott is the last book in his series known as the Raj Quartet. The four books are classics, that have been read and will continue to be read centuries from now as readers attempt to understand what happened during the last days of the British Raj in India. I read history but I am also a great fan of well written historical fiction and these books are extremely well written historical fiction. Having read them, I am much more enlightened about the struggles which continue today betweem Hindu and Muslim.

Many of the characters from the earlier books converge in DIVISION, and the book introduces a new character, Guy Perron, who is a Chillingborough-Cambridge educated historian whose "period" and place are mid-19th Century India. Guy's character is used to tie up all the loose ends.

After arriving in India as a British army sergeant (he has elected not become an officer although his education and class clearly warrent it), Guy has the misfortune to be "chosen" by the recently-promoted-to-LtCol. and very wicked Ronald Merrick as his aide-de-camp. Merrick is still riddled with class envy, and sees in Guy an excellent opportunity to abuse someone he despises. Fortunately, Guy is able to escape from Merrick through the graces of his Aunt Charlotte who pulls strings to have him released from the army.

Fortunately for Guy, he doesn't escape Merrick before he meets Sarah Layton. Their story is told in this fourth volume and certain elements of the tale bring to mind the earlier story of Hari Kumar and Daphne Manners. In fact, it is through Guy's meeting of Merrick, Sarah, and another Chillingburrian, Nigel Rowan (who interviewed Hari Kumar in prison) that he becomes interested in the events at Mayapore in 1942 and the subsequent consequences for all involved.

As with other great classics, in DIVISION things do not always evolve as the reader would have wished. This book is very realistic -- sorrow and joy are mixed. In JEWEL IN THE CROWN, the first book in the series, Lady Chatterjee says she does not want to go to a heaven that excludes joy and sorrow because being human requires one to feel joy and sorrow.

Perhaps it is because humans can experience sorrow they are capable of experiencing joy. In the end, the reader discovers Hari Kumar's fate and the identity of Philoctetes as well as the difference between Dharma and Karma. This is a powerful series and a fabulous ending to the tale.

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5.0étoiles sur 5 Impressive last volume, Aoû 13 2000
This book is just as impressive as the three others of the Raj Quartet. Once again, the cast of interesting characters is huge; the atmosphere of the time is brilliantly captured and the variety of scenes/plots is well mastered. The book is instructive and yet enormously entertaining. The Raj Quartet is one of the most rewarding pieces of literature I have ever read.
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5.0étoiles sur 5 Hard to see it all end..., Mars 25 2000
Par Debbie Terrill (Eugene, Oregon) - Voir tous mes commentaires
I hated to see this lush, vast series come to an end. However, as the Raj ends, so does the Raj Quartet. We see some of the natural conclusions of colonial rule, and of the love/hate relationships between the rulers and the ruled ... madness, depravity, love, denial... and the future, both of India and of the characters in the series.
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