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The Siege of Krishnapur

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The Siege of Krishnapur

By: J. G. Farrell
Narrated by: Peter Wickham
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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.

1973, The Booker Prize, Winner

©1996 J. G. Farrell (P)2018 Orion Publishing Group Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Siege
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Critic reviews

While I can't categorically state it's the best book ever, I find it hard to think of one that I prefer. One that does more as a work of fiction, or that says more about our flawed humanity . . . The Siege of Krishnapur is a superb portrayal of physical horrors and psychological fallout . . . [It] is wonderfully funny, written with devastating wit and rambunctious humanity. I can't praise it enough - and I can't push it enough (Sam Jordison)
Inspired, funny but ultimately tragic look at colonialism in India. It has an unusual exuberance (Mariella Frostrup)
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Wonderful novel. This is everything you want in a story. You are taken into his confidence all the way through in a series of intimate reflections which accompany you along the journey so that when the novel ends, it feels sad, as if a treasured house guest suddenly left. The characters could be more sharply drawn, which they are in Troubles. I loved how the plot seeped along enveloping the demise of the British Empire using the Lucknow Siege (upon which the tale is based) as its crumbling foundation. Imagery like the parasitic ants creep into the mind of the reader from which there is, one gets the feeling, probably no escape. The asides are hilarious. All the way through, Farrell's irony is such good company. Books like these are the perfect antidote to a lonely summer spent convalescing from an illness.

beautifully written

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The Booker Prize winner of 1973. I think a historical novel, set in the India, concentrating on the story of white settlers would struggle to make the long list today. And in someways that's fair - I remember Salman Rushdie criticising The Jewel in the Crown TV series (based on Paul Scott's Raj Quartet) because it considered only the stories of white people to be important. That's certainly true of The Siege of Krishnapur - the most finely drawn characters are white males: Collector Hopkins, Harry the soldier, Fleury the would be poet turned soldier, the 2 doctors, the padre and the magistrate. Less trouble is taken with the white women and few of the native characters even merit a name - Hari, the Maharaja's heir being an exception. So it surprised me to discover that Rushdie considered that, but for Farrell's untimely death at 44, he would have gone on to become "one of the really major novelists of the English Language."

Farrell is not Kipling, his style owes more to the irreverence of Carry on Up the Khyber than to Kim. It's wickedly funny and Farrell does not mourn the passing of the British Empire. The book was also shortlisted for the 2008 Best of the Booker but lost out, appropriately to Rushdie's Midnight's Children.

Carry on at Krishnapur

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A favourite book, bought in Audible format to refresh myself ahead of a book-group discussion.
Generally a good, gently sensitive reading with a clear voice and diction.
However I was disappointed by the reader’s chosen manner when giving voice to the dialogue of the women characters of the novel. Other male readers/actors often manage this better. He used a very fey falsetto which gave too much of an impression of vacuity; no matter what was being said. Admittedly some of the women are witless, but, by no means all - it tainted all of the female utterances.

Audible: The Siege of Krishnapur

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The story was well told and captured the era and the scene so well . The narration was first class .

Very good

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The writing has a controlled tone, ironic, cool, sometimes laugh out loud funny. A shocking yet familiar tale of imperial folly. Characters of depth and complexity, revealed through the mores of their time. The story gripped me. The reading was a little jarring, especially the falsetto and drippy women’s voices.

Deeply ironic picture of Empire

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