Reading Wednesday
Oct. 1st, 2014 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Farzana: the Woman Who Saved an Empire by Julia Keay. A very well-done nonfiction account of a part of Indian history that I previously knew very little about. In the late 1700s, though the Mughal Empire still held nominal control of most of north India, the emperors actually held extremely little actual power, whether political, military, or economic. The power vacuum this caused was filled by a multitude of competing groups: to the south, the Marathas, to the west, the Rajputs, and to the north, the Sikhs: all groups with a lot of military power but torn by internal divisions; to the north-west, Afghan leaders who occasionally would raid and pillage into India, but who had little interest in staying put; the former Mughal territories of Awadh, Bengal, Hyderbad and the independent Mysore, all city-states with a lot of political and cultural power within their boundaries, but all fairly small; and the new European trading powers, the main ones being the British in Calcutta and Madras and the French at Pondicherry and Chandernagore (and the two of them, of course, bringing into the chaos their own rivalry from various wars on other continents). It was basically a Dark Ages, with constant competition for more territory or wealth and little overarching law and order. Unsurprisingly, a number of mercenary companies sprang up, mostly composed of a mix of Indians, Europeans, and people of mixed race, who moved from ruler to ruler determined by who could pay and who had won the most recent battle.
All of this is just the background to Farzana's own life: she was born into an impoverished family, sold as a child to become a nautch girl (a sort of courtesan), moved up to become the concubine of the English leader of a mercenary band, took over the band in her own name after his death, ruled her own little state, became famous for riding into battle alongside her soldiers, and was eventually adopted as a daughter by the Mughal emperor himself. "Saved" the Empire is an exaggeration – "helped it to limp along for a few more decades before it was dismantled by the British in the 1850s" would be more accurate – but it's an exciting enough story that it hardly matters. Keay's style is easy to read and never becomes confusing, despite the multitude of names and groups to deal with. She tends to attribute emotions to people – Farzana "was reluctant", "she was impressed", "she was certainly in no mood to be courted", etc – although as far as I can tell, we have absolutely no way of knowing what Farzana felt about anything. That annoyed me, but it's a minor problem, and overall I highly recommend the book.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
What are you currently reading?
A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev. Yet another NetGalley book. This one is a romance novel with a great premise but an unfortunately terrible execution.
Continuing Days of the Dead by Barbara Hambly. I just want allllllll the fic, wah, why does it not exist? Today I'm thinking about an AU where Hannibal actually does end up in jail in Mexico City. I don't know why I'm so taken with the idea, because obviously everything ends up tragic and terrible. But: desperate kisses under the gallows! That's appealing, right?
Also Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber. I'm skipping around to the chapters about the plays I've read (about 15 out of 38 included plays; I'm particularly deficient in the history plays, mainly because I don't much care about the War of the Roses), but it's a great book, with excellent analysis of characters, language, and theme, and it really makes me want to go and read more of the original plays.
Farzana: the Woman Who Saved an Empire by Julia Keay. A very well-done nonfiction account of a part of Indian history that I previously knew very little about. In the late 1700s, though the Mughal Empire still held nominal control of most of north India, the emperors actually held extremely little actual power, whether political, military, or economic. The power vacuum this caused was filled by a multitude of competing groups: to the south, the Marathas, to the west, the Rajputs, and to the north, the Sikhs: all groups with a lot of military power but torn by internal divisions; to the north-west, Afghan leaders who occasionally would raid and pillage into India, but who had little interest in staying put; the former Mughal territories of Awadh, Bengal, Hyderbad and the independent Mysore, all city-states with a lot of political and cultural power within their boundaries, but all fairly small; and the new European trading powers, the main ones being the British in Calcutta and Madras and the French at Pondicherry and Chandernagore (and the two of them, of course, bringing into the chaos their own rivalry from various wars on other continents). It was basically a Dark Ages, with constant competition for more territory or wealth and little overarching law and order. Unsurprisingly, a number of mercenary companies sprang up, mostly composed of a mix of Indians, Europeans, and people of mixed race, who moved from ruler to ruler determined by who could pay and who had won the most recent battle.
All of this is just the background to Farzana's own life: she was born into an impoverished family, sold as a child to become a nautch girl (a sort of courtesan), moved up to become the concubine of the English leader of a mercenary band, took over the band in her own name after his death, ruled her own little state, became famous for riding into battle alongside her soldiers, and was eventually adopted as a daughter by the Mughal emperor himself. "Saved" the Empire is an exaggeration – "helped it to limp along for a few more decades before it was dismantled by the British in the 1850s" would be more accurate – but it's an exciting enough story that it hardly matters. Keay's style is easy to read and never becomes confusing, despite the multitude of names and groups to deal with. She tends to attribute emotions to people – Farzana "was reluctant", "she was impressed", "she was certainly in no mood to be courted", etc – although as far as I can tell, we have absolutely no way of knowing what Farzana felt about anything. That annoyed me, but it's a minor problem, and overall I highly recommend the book.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
What are you currently reading?
A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev. Yet another NetGalley book. This one is a romance novel with a great premise but an unfortunately terrible execution.
Continuing Days of the Dead by Barbara Hambly. I just want allllllll the fic, wah, why does it not exist? Today I'm thinking about an AU where Hannibal actually does end up in jail in Mexico City. I don't know why I'm so taken with the idea, because obviously everything ends up tragic and terrible. But: desperate kisses under the gallows! That's appealing, right?
Also Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber. I'm skipping around to the chapters about the plays I've read (about 15 out of 38 included plays; I'm particularly deficient in the history plays, mainly because I don't much care about the War of the Roses), but it's a great book, with excellent analysis of characters, language, and theme, and it really makes me want to go and read more of the original plays.
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no subject
Date: 2014-10-01 10:21 pm (UTC)desperate kisses under the gallows! That's appealing, right?
Yes.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 02:04 am (UTC)desperate kisses under the gallows! That's appealing, right?
Yes.
:D
But I'm pretty sure it ends with Hannibal being hanged, so I don't think I will actually write it. (He says, "You waited until now to tell me this? If I had known earlier, I never would have come to this wretched country!")