Customer Reviews

Nightrunners of Bengal

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This book reminds me the masterpiece of Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter". Pushkin wrote about the greatest Russian peasant's mutiny, so calles "Pougatchevschina". Masters wrote about the Indian mutiny. The problem is just the same - the price of justice. You can be absolutely politically correct and think that Pougatchev and Rani Sumitra were the greatest patriots possible. You may be absolutely sure that Russian serfdom & British raj are abominable. But the fact is that the victory of Russian peasants or Indian sepoys will be the beginning of chaos. Pushkin wrote about "meaningless and merciless Russian riot". Masters understands what does it mean. As an Anglo-Indian he lived through the downfall of his world and he write about his own hard earned experience . Rodney Savage, the hero, lived through the destruction and death of everything he thought true: his family, his regiment, his faith and his spiritual innocence. This book is about the acquisition of humanity by the man who has to start all over again. "Nightrunners" is a bit old-fashioned. Of cource, Kipling's influence is very strong, but I recommend it to everybody who want to read about the real mutiny & not about the much praised "fight for freedom and independence".

P.S. English is not my native language, so excuse me for my mistakes.

The scenery, sights, sounds, smells and societies of India in 1857.

Masters was born in Calcutta, the fifth generation of his family to

serve in India. His knowledge of and love for India is mind-blowing, and his adventures are hair-raising.

Warning: The Mutiny only takes place after you've read half the book.

Background is fine, but endless yammer over the (not soon enough to be widowed) hero's weird relationship with his new bluestocking girlfriend (he can't quite seem to make up his mind)is numbing...

I've just tonight finished Masters' "The Deceivers". I had hoped there would be less of the bizarre female-worship, but it's back again in full together with whole chapters of delirium as usual.

Was Masters an opium "addict" along with liberal supplies of booze? Certainly the most convincing passages - and they are endless - of the two heroes' hallucinations ring true, if boringly.

Anyway, if you take women as they come and enjoy rip-roaring historical fiction, this isn't the book for you. For the Mutiny, highly recommended is the great George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman in the Great Game".

"Nightrunners of Bengal" is an exciting and masterfully written gathering of lies and half-truths written from an obvious pro-colonialist viewpoint. It is also a classic of the genre. A telling example of the author's bias is that Indians refer to the, so called, Mutiny of 1857 (the central event of the novel) as the First War of Independence. John Masters considers it to be no more than a Sepoy Rebellion made incoherent by religious fanaticism. His take on the Rani of Jhanci who was a prime mover in the war is of a hysterical nymphomaniac rather than a woman with deep self interest in the preservation of her successor and a patriot. This is not to say that every historical instance is corrupted, but enough to sway opinion away from the Indians. Inaccuracy and bias beside, the author does provide an interesting study of the nature of loyalty. Is it to God, king, country, or contract? His final take focuses on the Bengal Lancers refusal to join the war on the side of their countrymen because they had willingly agreed to serve the Crown (or its surrogate, the East India Company). The Lancers are his heroes precisely because they honor the contract. A man does what he promises to do. My Indian friends find this to be a bit disingenous. I admit, though, prior to learning a few facts I was quite taken by this novel. It is a page turner and a thriller. The sad fact is the truth would have been every bit as compelling as the author's fabrications.