Product Description

In the Spring of 1857, with India on the brink of a violent and bloody mutiny, Krishnapur is a remote town on the vast North Indian plain. For the British there, life is orderly and genteel. Then the sepoys at the nearest military cantonment rise in revolt and the British community retreats with shock into the Residency. They prepare to fight for their lives with what weapons they can muster. As food and ammunition grow short, the Residency, its defences battered by shot and shell and eroded by the rains, becomes ever more vulnerable. The Siege of Krishnapur is a modern classic of narrative excitement that also digs deep to explore some fundamental questions of civilisation and life.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #361029 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 376 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review

"The first sign of trouble at Krishnapur came with a mysterious distribution of chapatis, made of coarse flour and about the size and thickness of a biscuit; towards the end of February 1857, they swept the countryside like an epidemic."

Students of history will recognise 1857 as the year of the Sepoy rebellion in India--an uprising of native soldiers against the British, brought on by Hindu and Muslim recruits' belief that the rifle cartridges with which they were provided had been greased with pig or cow fat. This seminal event in Anglo-Indian relations provides the backdrop for J.G. Farrell's Booker Prize- winning exploration of race, culture and class, The Siege of Krishnapur.

Like the mysteriously appearing chapatis, life in British India seems, on the surface, innocuous enough. Farrell introduces us gradually to a large cast of characters as he paints a vivid portrait of the Victorians' daily routines that are accompanied by heat, boredom, class-consciousness and the pursuit of genteel pastimes intended for cooler climates. Even the siege begins slowly, with disquieting news of massacres in cities far away. When Krishnapur itself is finally attacked, the Europeans withdraw inside the grounds of the Residency where very soon conditions begin to deteriorate: food and water run out, disease is rampant, people begin to go a little mad. Soon the very proper British are reduced to eating insects and consorting across class lines. Farrell's descriptions of life inside the Residency are simultaneously horrifying and blackly humorous. The siege, for example, is conducted under the avid eyes of the local populace, who clearly anticipate an enjoyable massacre and thus arrive every morning laden with picnic lunches (plainly visible to the starving Europeans). By turns witty and compassionate, The Siege of Krishnapur comprises the best of all fictional worlds: unforgettable characters, an epic adventure and at its heart a cultural clash for the ages. --Alix Wilber

About the Author
J.G. Farrell was born in Liverpool in 1935 and spent a good deal of his life abroad, including periods in France and North America, and then settled in London where he wrote most of his novels. In April 1979 he went to live in County Cork where only four months later he was drowned in a fishing accident.

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Customer Reviews

Excellent
An excellent book telling of the mutiny. Whilst the book almost neglects the natives this isn't fiction dressed up as colonial propaganda. This is an incredibly humorous tale of a group of Englishmen trapped within a residency, besieged by a whole host of natives. As the siege progresses civilization, science and religion are all discussed along with the odd smattering of phrenology. An incredibly entertaining book and one very worth reading.

The Raj must go on ...
An amazing story - Life continues as normal for the colonial outpost at Krishnapur with poetry readings and all the trappings of genteel society back in England. But there the comparisons with 'Carry on up the Khyber' stop once the Sepoys start their siege. It all becomes grim, dirty, diseased and everyone is forced to find their hidden reserves of strength as the food rations start to run out.
This winner of the Booker Prize from 1973 is full of strong characterisation, and doesn't shy away from describing the decay and rotting from the high body count and cholera with attendant vultures and jackals.
Its style has similarities with A.S.Byatt's Victorian romances, but also has a sense of humour throughout in that life must go on!
A dense but fabulous novel.

Interesting but dull in places
Personally I don't understand what all the fuss around the book is about. I mean it was alright, interesting insight into that life with some excellent characters and plots. I just found that it dragged, the start was very slow and when it continued to change pace I became disinterested in stories that could have been riveting.
Possibly I have a different view as I had to study this book for A-levels against another book that I much preferred. Being young as well some of the deeper philosophical points may have been lost on me. I loved the characters indeed though I would have liked to have known whether it was Harry who got Lucy pregnant and several more little mysteries but sometimes that is the fun. I think the story is good but it's long-winded if you want detailed characters you get it, the main narrator is very observant. I would say it reminds me a little of Gabriel Garcia in places but that said I enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera immensely and this not much at all.