THE TEARS OF THE RAJAS: MUTINY, MONEY AND MARRIAGE IN INDIA 1805-1905

Book ID/图书代码： 11701214B74587

English Summary/英文概要： THE TEARS OF THE RAJAS is a sweeping history of the British in India, seen through the experiences of a single Scottish family. For a century the Lows of Clatto survived mutiny, siege, debt and disease, everywhere from the heat of Madras to the Afghan snows. They lived through the most appalling atrocities and retaliated with some of their own. Each of their lives, remarkable in itself, contributes to the story of the whole fragile and imperilled, often shockingly oppressive and devious but now and then heroic and poignant enterprise.

On the surface, John and Augusta Low and their relations may seem imperturbable, but in their letters and diaries they often reveal their loneliness and desperation and their doubts about what they are doing in India. The Lows are the family of the author’s grandmother, and a recurring theme of the book is his own discovery of them and of those parts of the history of the British in India which posterity has preferred to forget.

The book brings to life not only the most dramatic incidents of their careers - the massacre at Vellore, the conquest of Java, the deposition of the boy-king of Oudh, the disasters in Afghanistan, the Reliefs of Lucknow and Chitral - but also their personal ordeals: the bankruptcies in Scotland and Calcutta, the plagues and fevers, the deaths of children and deaths in childbirth. And it brings to life too the unrepeatable strangeness of their lives: the camps and the palaces they lived in, the balls and the flirtations in the hill stations, and the hot slow rides through the dust. An epic saga of love, war, intrigue and treachery, The Tears of the Rajas is surely destined to become a classic of its kind.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 《国王的眼泪》通过一个苏格兰家庭的经历讲述了英属印度的历史。作品中的主人公是作者祖母的一家——从马德拉斯的高温到阿富汗的大雪，Low一家人经历了叛乱、围攻、债务和疾病，每一个鲜活的人物和他们的经历构成了这部脆弱、震惊、心酸、英雄主义的作品。书中不仅讲述了这一家子遇到的各种决定性事件——维罗尔的大屠杀、攻占Java、阿富汗的灾难等，更描绘了每个个体所面对的折磨和苦难——加尔各答和苏格兰的破产、瘟疫和高热、孩子的早夭……同时，作品也将他们人生中不可复制的各种陌生感描写得淋漓尽致——他们所居住的营地和宫殿、山丘车站的调情……这是一部充满了爱、战争、阴谋和背叛的史诗作品，必将成为同类作品中的经典。(LYR)

Awards/获奖情况：“Mount在讲述这个故事的时候，融入了些许诙谐、感动、男孩子气的热情和讲故事的天赋……这是一个恢弘的故事，描绘了英属印度历史全貌，内容比Mount在介绍中描述的自己的目标——‘印度传奇故事集’——更加扎实。”—— William Dalrymple，《旁观者》

“Mount对于这一可怕事件不偏不倚的描述是我迄今为止读到的最好的作品，为这段辉煌的历史做出了非常到位的总结。”——《独立报》

’As with William Dalrymple’s recent masterly account of the 19th-century invasion of Afghanistan, its relevance today is compelling’ Miranda Seymour, The Sunday Times

’Mount relates this remarkable story with a gentle wit, a lightness of touch, a boyish enthusiasm as well as a genius for the telling pen-portrait… It is a remarkable story, and cumulatively amounts to an epic panorama of British Indian history much more substantial than the ’collection of Indian tales, a human jungle book’, which Mount modestly describes as his aim in the introduction.’ --William Dalrymple, The Spectator

’What [Mount] provides instead is of far greater value: a perceptive antidote to nationalistic prejudicial thinking, and an opportunity for a greater understanding of the aftereffects of British imperialism in some of the world’s most troubled regions.’ Sunday Times

’Although Tears of the Rajas is replete with stirring tales of adventure, it is a deeply humane book. Mount’s heart is at all times with the people of India, whose lives are turned upside down by blundering attempts at modernisation.’ The Times

’Mount is a skilled and fluent writer who does his subject justice’ --Literary Review

’Mount has produced a gripping and finely nuanced account of the British imperial experience that is, to my mind, unique.’ Saul David, Evening Standard

’Mount’s even-handed description of this horrific event is the best I have read and a fitting conclusion to this splendid history’ Independent

’In The Tears of the Rajas, this scion of empire provides a warts-and-all account of his ancestry’s involvement in India’ Prospect

’Wonderfully detailed, fascinating, intelligent and level-headed history of a century of empire...’ The Scotsman

’Impressively researched ... eminently readable ... epic account of the British in 19th-century India.’ --David Goodall, Country Life

About the Author/作者介绍： Ferdinand Mount生于1939年。多年来一直是《旁观者》《每日电讯》《星期日泰晤士报》的专栏作家。现在是知名的获奖小说家，著有畅销回忆录《冷霜（Cold Cream）》以及近期颇具争议的作品《新的少数（The New Few）》。现居住在伦敦。

Ferdinand Mount was born in 1939. For many years he was a columnist at the Spectator and then the Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times. In between, he was head of the Downing Street Policy Unit and then editor of the Times Literary Supplement. He is now a prize-winning novelist, author of the bestselling memoir Cold Cream, and most recently the controversial The New Few. He lives in London.

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Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：SOLD

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：Sales for previous title, Tears of Rajas (2015): UK: Simon & Schuster; China: Social Sciences Academic Press

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