Very Good. Not for Me

This book was a 'Daily Deal' offer, I like books about History, and the Reviews are really good so I took a chance. I'm glad I got it. The book is packed with mind-blowing events surrounding the East India company in India during the 18th/19th century...corporate military mercantilism - Fascinating. Dalrymple writes really well - interesting and authoritative, without being overwhelmed by direct quotes from period documents, as so many academic works are. Historical dates and events are brought to life through Dalrymple's style. The only real drawback is that I wasn't engrossed by the subject material - and got lost frequently...with my mind wandering. Repeatedly giving monetary conversions IN THE TEXT gets annoying, too. Sid Sagar is an excellent narrator. Pronunciations loyal to the subject. I hope I don't bring down the rating - it’s likely worth 4.5 stars, but I can't give it that. Just not my topic. 3 stars out of 5.

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A good listen

I really enjoyed this book. A great listen. I will caveat that the author seems to spend as much time on the downfall of the Moughal Dynasty as he does the East India Company. That wasn't a downside for me - I found it fascinating, because it was all new to me. Definitely no regrets on the purchase.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

A riveting, compelling story

I have read some of William Dalrymple's other books and enjoyed them, but nothing prepared me for how good this book would be. It is more compelling than any novel I have read in the past ten years, and I was disappointed when it ended. The story of how a company cheated, lied, stole and fought its way to control the richest country of its time, has never, never a boring moment. Dalrymple writes convincing biographies of the main Indian, Persian, Afghan and British characters, among them many true scoundrels - on all sides - and explains in lively prose both the military and political plots. The narrator was excellent, and I will look for both more books written by Dalrymple, and for books narrated by Sid Sagar. My only minor quibble was with the insertion of long footnotes in the middle of lively text, but I think that is an editorial issue which could be easily dealt with. I have already recommended this book, without reservation, to several people in my family and among my professional colleauges.

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unparalleled research and seamless presentation

I was overwhelmed by the combination of solid research, assessment, and inclusion of journals that gave a historical story. it really was a story that can be listened to for just that, but to also have the references and data to go with it was such a bonus. it was such genius to interweave the actual writings of all sides into the work, so personal a journey to read, so horrific a reality to expose. The level of depravity and loss for the peoples of India is a struggle to grasp...I mean really, there are numbers but this work has opened my eyes on what drives colonialism and how foreign governments step in. still overwhelmed that this was one business, yet others operated further East

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What an amazing book! It left me wanting more

Having known just the barebones history of the takeover of India by the East India Company, I was looking for something more in-depth. I found this gem of a book that satiated my appetite yet left me wanting for more. The book is well researched and extremely well written. I have listened to it a couple of times and each time I recognize a detail in the story that I had glossed over. I wish he would write a follow-up book.

Great book

Extremely well researched and undoubtedly detailed account of history as it played out between East and West in India.

Shockingly entertaining and easy to follow

Extremely engaging and well-read, even as a layman, despite how complex the history is. Extremely good.

Terrible pronunciation

The only thing in the narrator's favour is that he reads reasonably clearly. Unfortunately his pronunciation of common English words (eg Jacobean, impudent) is just plain wrong. He imitates an English accent but does not seem to have studied, or perhaps even heard, normal English pronunciations. It is so distracting that I am missing the meaning of large parts of the sentences so will buy the book instead.

Amazing historical detail of pre-1800 India

This book has drastically altered my understanding of the British government’s role in the colonialism of India. A well read historical book with sound comparisons to today’s large multinational corporations.

Sociopath meets psychopath

In Joel Bakan’s 2003 documentary film The Corporation today's corporations were likened to psychopaths. Without doubt the EIC was the most psychopathic of them all because unlike today’s corporations it was highly militarized and had the territorial ambitions of an invading army. This was the lethal ingredient it required for total domination in addition to its sharp business practices, initially lax government oversight and subservient bankers. William Dalrymple gives us a wonderful antidote to the conventional pro-European story telling method through the history of India during this period. This is similar in a way to Peter Frankopan’s method of telling of history from East to West in his Silk Roads masterpiece (I can’t wait for that audio version, out soon). In the context of Black Lives Matter and the “statue wars” of June 2020 Dalrymple recently wrote an article for the Guardian on the 1912 Clive statue in London making a very good case for its removal. Taken in conjunction with the biographical account of Clive from this book there is very little argument for retaining it in its present location King Charles Street near the Mall, London. Lord Vulture was well named by sketch writers of the time and Dalrymple describes him as a sociopath. Thus, there was a maladjusted sociopath working for a psychopathic entity, the EIC, not a great combination for the local populations. The book contains excellent biographies or partial biographies of many important players including Robert Clive, Tipu Sultan, Shah Alam, and Arthur Wellesley. There are diary entries from more common soldiers on all sides and a wealth of well researched Indian and Persian literature, some revealed for the first time. These provide exciting descriptions and eyewitness accounts. For war historians there is much to enjoy including excellent accounts of The Carnatic Wars, the Battle of Plassey, the fourth Anglo-Mysore War including the Battle of Seringapatam and the second Anglo-Maratha war. Descriptions of the progress of the science and method of warfare over all these various campaigns are very well done. I might suggest the listener goes to the epilogue first to get an overall landscape and modern contexts and then starts back at the beginning. Props to Sid Sagar who did a great job on narration with complex names and intricate details that were very well read. He maintained my interest throughout and never sounded as though he was being perfunctory. I could have done without the constant currency conversions to values of the present day which became exceedingly tedious in places where there were many all crammed together. Fairly pointless as, who is a) going to remember any of this or b) care if something is 1 lakh rupees then versus 250 million pounds in today’s money? The values of gold, money, jewels, goods, land etc. etc. were all just so huge it would have been quite alright to leave them in the currency of the day and move on. I suppose this was done to be absolutely authentic to the original text in an unabridged reading.