![]() ![]() Especially interesting and sympathetic is the character of Mr Hopkins, the administrative head, or Collector, of Krishnapur. Trapped in a dwindling number of buildings, subject to repeated attack, and suffering both from sickness and the oppressive heat of summer, the British community soon finds itself under threat from within, too, as the simple certainties of superiority and invulnerability that have sustained them and the British Empire begin to crumble.įarrell’s characters, from the local priest and doctor to the young men and women who have come east to make their fortune or marry, are shown responding to this challenge in unexpected ways. In Farrell’s novel, the British inhabitants of the fictional town of Krishnapur ignore rumors of unrest only to find themselves under siege by the rebels. In 1857, Indian soldiers in the British army-known as sepoys-rebelled against their colonial overlords, and serious conflict broke out in the northern half of the subcontinent. ![]() ![]() Farrell’s picture of the British Empire in crisis raises questions with a bearing on contemporary conflicts between East and West. ![]() Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur is both a gripping tale of the siege of a remote British outpost during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and a fascinating, and blisteringly comic novel of ideas. ![]()
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