Raj Quartet

The conclusion of the "majestic" quartet about the waning days of the British empire in India, "a commanding achievement" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). After exploiting India's divisions for years, the British are departing in such haste that no one is prepared for the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1947. The twilight of the raj turns bloody. Against the backdrop of the violent partition of India and Pakistan, A Division of the Spoils illuminates one last bittersweet romance, revealing the divided loyalties of the British as they flee, retreat from, or cling to India. "[These] novels are a spectacular explosion of history set off within the lives of a dozen or so Britons and Indians on the edges of vast change . . . If you want to know where the political world we now live in began, Paul Scott's novels are a place to start." -The New York Times Book Review "A rich novel of manners . . . Politics, cultism, police and military interrogation-all moving toward inevitable murder and violence-are integral parts of a carefully crafted, complex novel." -Library Journal

Second in the epic quartet capturing life at the end of British rule in India, "an achievement of unusual dimensions and power" (The Observer (UK)). In The Day of the Scorpion, Scott draws us deeper in to his epic of India at the close of World War II. With force and subtlety, he recreates both private ambition and perversity, and the politics of an entire subcontinent at a turning point in history. As the scorpion, encircled by a ring of fire, will sting itself to death, so does the British raj hasten its own destruction when threatened by the flames of Indian independence. Brutal repression and imprisonment of India's leaders cannot still the cry for home rule. And during the chaos, the English Laytons withdraw from a world they no longer know to seek solace in denial, drink, and madness. Praise for The Day of the Scorpion "Classical and complex in structure, with a mystery at its center." -P. Albert Duhamel, New York Times Book Review "[A] rich, elaborately terraced novel. . . . [Scott's] view of the crippling illusionary quests of men and nations, his ability to recreate a culture and a time, continue to mark him as a novelist of importance." -Kirkus Reviews "An even richer tapestry of Indian and British character than its predecessor, with greater wealth and variety of incident. . . . [A] ramifying and exciting but beautifully constructed novel." -London Sunday Times (UK) "Outstanding. . . . [Mr. Scott is] a writer who has thoroughly mastered his material and who can . . . work through a maze of fascinating detail without for a moment losing sight of distant and considerable objectives." -Times Literary Supplement (UK)

Third in the epic quartet about the end of the Raj: "Scott throws us into India, wretched and beautiful . . . His contribution to literature is permanent." -The New York Times Book Review India, 1943: In a regimental hill station, the ladies of Pankot struggle to preserve the genteel façade of British society amid the debris of a vanishing empire and World War II. A retired missionary, Barbara Batchelor, bears witness to the connections between many human dramas-the love between Daphne Manner and Hari Kumar; the desperate grief an old teacher feels for an India she cannot rescue; and the cruelty of Captain Ronald Merrick, Susan Layton's future husband. This is the third novel in the Raj Quartet, a series of historical novels that "limn the Anglo-Indian world with its lovers, friends, family servants, soldiers, businessmen, murderers and suicides-all involved in one another's fate" (The New York Times). "Scott has the trick of being sympathetic without ever losing his clearsightedness." -Times Literary Supplement

The first novel in the epic quartet about the last days of British rule in India, "as much a story of romantic love as it is of crime . . . an artful triumph" (The New Yorker). The Jewel in the Crown is the first of Paul Scott's renowned historical novels that "limn the Anglo-Indian world with its lovers, friends, family servants, soldiers, businessmen, murderers and suicides-all involved in one another's fate" (The New York Times). It opens in 1942 as the British fear both Japanese invasion and Indian demands for independence. On the night after the Indian Congress Party votes to support Gandhi, riots break out and an ambitious police sergeant arrests a young Indian for the alleged rape of the woman they both love. "What has always astonished me about The Raj Quartet is its sense of sophisticated and total control of its gigantic scenario and highly varied characters . . . The politics are handled with an expertise that intrigues and never bores, and are always seen in terms of individuals." -New Republic "Paul Scott's vision is both precise and painterly." -The New York Times Book Review "Few people have written about India quite as seductively, or as intelligently, with a sense of loss but also a sense of responsibility and fallibility." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)