Product Description

This is book two of "The Raj Quartet". India, August 9th 1942: the morning brings raids and the arrest by British police of Congress Party members. Amongst the prisoners is the distinguished ex-Chief Minister Mohammed Ali Kasim. Loyal to the party's central vision of a unified free India, his incarceration is a symptom of the growing deterioration of Anglo-Indian relations. For the long-serving British family, the Laytons, the political and social ramifications are immediate, disturbing and tragic. Some, like Ronald Merrick, believe that true intimacy between the races is impossible; others, such as Sarah Layton, struggle to come to terms with their Anglo-Indian past. With growing confusion and bewilderment, the British are forced to confront the violent and often brutal years that lie ahead of them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109446 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 542 pages

From the Publisher
The second title in Paul Scott's masterpiece, The Raj Quartet - dramatised for Radio 4

About the Author
Paul Scott was born in London in 1920. He served in the army from 1940 to 1946, mainly in India and Malaya. He is the author of thirteen distinguished novels including his famous The Raj Quartet. In 1977, Staying On won the Booker Prize. Paul Scott died in 1978.

Customer Reviews

The theme of the dying Scorpion prevails throughout..
A scorpion, when death is imminent, will simply coil up into a ball, and succum to death; this is what the reader is led to believe in part two of the Raj Quartet. This prevailing theme appears and reappears throughout the entire series; sometimes subtly. Reader beware, however, as the real cause for the scorpions coil is revealed in "A Division of the Spoils."

Indians coil at English oppression as demonstrated by Hari Kumar's silence over the rape of the white woman he loves; Hindus coil at Muslim antagonism, and Susan, an English woman coils up again and again, in fear of life itself. Scott uses this theme to capture the essence of the strife between England and India, and between the Muslims and the Hindu's.

While part one of the Jewel in the crown puts the focus on Hindu culture, Scott leads the reader to understand the Muslim perspective in "The Day of the Scorpion." Perhaps Paul Scott, in the Raj Quartet, can bring the reader to more fully understand the dynamics of human nature, morality and culture better than any writer of this century. The thoughts and ideas that prevail throughout the series are applicable to many international situations. This truely makes "The Day of the Scorpion" a cross cultural work of art.

Book 2 of the Raj Quartet
This book continues the story of the end of the British rule in India. The story is told through the eyes of old Indian hands who are acutely aware of the unrest that surrounds them but refuse to face the fact that their World, the only World they really know, is coming to an end.

The Raj Quartet is deservedly regarded as a classic of English literature