The Siege of Krishnapur
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| The Siege of Krishnapur | |
| Author | J. G. Farrell |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
| Publication date | 1973 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 344 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0297765809 |
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The Siege of Krishnapur is a satirical novel by the author J.G. Farrell published in 1973.
The book details the siege of an Indian town during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 from three perspectives: the British, the Indian sepoys and the Indian princes. Its point of view is very much of the early 1970s and, in its dealings with the Empire. The book is not just an early-1970s exercise in empire-bashing, nor an orthodox account of the decay of civilisation under pressure. The absurdity of the class system in a town no one can leave becomes a source of comic invention. The book gained positive reviews from a variety of sources[1]. and won the Booker Prize in 1973 (list of winners).
[edit] Storyline
Farrell's story is set in an isolated Victorian outpost on the subcontinent. Rumors of strife filter in from afar, and yet the members of the colonial community remain confident of their military and, above all, moral superiority. But when they find themselves under actual siege, the true character of their dominion—at once brutal, blundering, and wistful—is soon revealed. The Siege of Krishnapur is a companion to Troubles, about the Easter 1916 rebellion in Ireland, and The Singapore Grip, which takes place just before World War II, as the sun begins to set upon the British Empire. Together these three novels offer an unequaled picture of the follies of empire[2].
This is the fictitious account, hilarious and horrifying by turns, of a besieged British garrison which held out for four months in the summer of 1857, the year of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, against an army of native Sepoys. Despite the omens, the young British cavalry officers continue to indulge their taste for galloping into the nearest memsahib's drawing room, jumping over the sofas and then filling their sola topis with champagne instead of water to quench their horses' thirst. It is left to the Governor of Krishnapur, a sensitive, cultured man with a collection of treasures in his residence, to prepare for the siege. By the end of the novel cholera, starvation and the Sepoys have done for most of the inhabitants, who are reduced to eating beetles and, in the absence of powder and shot, loading their cannons with monogrammed silver cutlery and false teeth. The final retreat of the British, still doggedly stiff-upper-lipped, through the pantries, laundries, music rooms and ballroom of the residency, using chandeliers and violins as weapons, is a comic delight[1].
| Preceded by G. |
Man Booker Prize recipient 1973 |
Succeeded by The Conservationist with Holiday |
