Customer Reviews

The Far Pavillions

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really did enjoy this book. I had just finished Gone With The Wind for the first time. Then I picked up this book. It had action, romance, and treachery. I love that it pulled me into India and their customs. It's a great book to introduce you to another culture and history. I would even recommend reading this story to a child at bed time. It will hold their interest.

This book is a classic and a keeper. I have seldom read books more than once, but this one I will re-read again and again. The prose is beautiful, the story moving and the characters are multi-dimensional and unforgettable. At close to a thousand pages this novel is still too short!

A very long historically based book that is well written but avoids being heavy even if colonial India is not of particular interest. Difficult to put down, very exciting and at times tear inducing.

...The reader is invited to experience a range of emotions when reading this book. The book has it all - heroism, loyalty, romance, happiness, sadness. Set in India the book provides an insight into the fight for a British empire, the heroic and savagery (depending which side you are on) fight-back by the Indian people. There is a lot of focus on the romance between Ash and Anjuli and their fight to be together. But let's not forget the loyalty of Ash's nurse who, following the death of Ash's parents, raises him as her own in order to protect him following an uprising against British rule. The death of Shushuli is one of the most moving I have read with Anjuli's determination to save Shushuli from a traditional funeral pyre death.
The book is very moving in its tale of two lovers trying to conquer the divide of being different and of racism. A most memorable quote from the book 'It is better to have loved and lost, than to have not loved at all' has stayed with me since I first read the book over twenty years ago.
This has got to be one of the all-time bestsellers. As good as Gone With the Wind.

This is an awesome, fabulous book. Ms. Kaye makes British Colonial India come alive from a native's perspective. This book has everything, romance, bravery, midnight escapes, dashing heros, heartbreaking partings, beautiful princesses and true heros as well as a passionate love story.

Colonial India seems to come alive through this book. It is very hard to put down. I find myself rereading it not in bits and pieces for my favorite parts, as I do with other favorites, but cover to cover every time. Yes this book is that good.

I really recommend this book, you won't be sorry you read it and rereading it is like running into an old beloved friend.

I was required to read this book several years ago in college. It's very thick and I wasn't looking forward to it at the time - turned out to be one of the best books I've ever read. I love historical fiction and this book has everything - history, adventure, romance, great storytelling.