J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur

Ralph Crane (University of Tasmania)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1973

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Siege of Krishnapur

, which won the Booker Prize in 1973, is the second published novel in J.G. Farrell’s triptych of historical fictions about the decline and fall of the British Empire, and the first in chronological terms. The others are

Troubles

(1970), set in Ireland during the War of Independence fought between 1919 and 1921, and

The Singapore Grip

(1979), which chronicles the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942. Focussing on what in Britain has popularly been referred to as the Indian Mutiny of 1857,

The Siege of Krishnapur

examines that significant moment in the history of the British Empire from a late-twentieth-century vantage point. It confronts, too, a particular moment in the history of the discourses of science, religion, and capitalism and their imperial…

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1787 words

Citation: Crane, Ralph. "The Siege of Krishnapur". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 January 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7734, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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