A Division Of Spoils

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

The story of the wars that led to the break-up of Alexander the Great's vast empire after his death in 323 BC and the brilliant cultural developments which accompanied this birth of a new world.

In this sequel to The Raj Quartet, Colonel Tusker and Lucy Smalley stay on in the hills of Pankot after Indian independence deprives them of their colonial status. Finally fed up with accommodating her husband, Lucy claims a degree of independence herself. Eloquent and hilarious, she and Tusker act out class tensions among the British of the Raj and give voice to the loneliness, rage, and stubborn affection in their marriage. Staying On won the Booker Prize in 1977 and was made into a motion picture starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in 1979. "Staying On far transcends the events of its central action. . . . [The work] should help win for Scott . . . the reputation he deserves—as one of the best novelists to emerge from Britain's silver age."—Robert Towers, Newsweek "Scott's vision is both precise and painterly. Like an engraver cross-hatching in the illusion of fullness, he selects nuances that will make his characters take on depth and poignancy."—Jean G. Zorn, New York Times Book Review "A graceful comic coda to the earlier song of India. . . . No one writing knows or can evoke an Anglo-Indian setting better than Scott."—Paul Gray, Time "Staying On provides a sort of postscript to [Scott's] deservedly acclaimed The Raj Quartet. . . . He has, as it were, summoned up the Raj's ghost in Staying On. . . . It is the story of the living death, in retirement, and the final end of a walk-on character from the quartet. . . . Scott has completed the task of covering in the form of a fictional narrative the events leading up to India's partition and the achievement of independence in 1947. It is, on any showing, a creditable achievement."—Malcolm Muggeridge, New York Times Book Review

The Laytons and the few remaining members of their English circle gradually accept the inevitability of change in the last days of the British Empire in India.

The Japanese are defeated and India moves jerkily towards independence from Britain. Divided loyalties and religious antagonism form the tangled background to this, the last novel of the "Raj Quartet" series.

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)