Staying on

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


Author: Paul Scott
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 10/01/1998
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.59lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.51w x 0.68d
ISBN: 9780226743493


Award: Man Booker Prize - Winner

About the Author
Scott, Paul: - Paul Scott (1920-78) was a British novelist best known for the tetralogy The Raj Quartet, published by the University of Chicago Press. Scott was drafted into the British Army during World War II and was stationed in India, an experience which shaped much of his literary work. The University of Chicago Press has also published his novels The Birds of Paradise, The Chinese Love Pavilion, Six Days in Marapore and Staying On, the latter of which won the Booker Prize for 1977.