William Dalrymple - The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857

THE FALL OF A DYNASTY, DELHI, 1857

WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

To my beloved Ibby

From the British reviews:

A book as important as it is impressive Diana Athill, GuardianBooks of the Year

A moving and totally engrossing account New Statesman Books of the Year.

Dalrymple writes with a brio rare among academic historians. Here is history almost novelistic in its vividness, wonderfully embodying both our closeness to, and radical distance from, the past. Alone among his peers, Dalrymple is producing the kind of work that, in scale, ambition and style, is like an oriental version of Gibbons The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Scotsman Books of the Year

A natural-born storyteller, Dalrymple recounts the dramatic history of Mughal Delhi before, during and after the 1857 Indian mutiny with such brio and passion that it is impossible not to be won over Sunday Times Books of the Year

Informed throughout with poignant awareness of contemporary events. His final words are a bleak warning, and one can only hope that The Last Mughal finds its way onto the bedtime tables of current world leaders Lucy Moore, Daily Mail

Easily Dalrymples most ambitious, compelling and unusual book. Here are the stories of real people who populated those tumultuous times heroes and villains, saints and debauches The Last Mughal is Dalrymples saddest and loveliest work to date Elle

An exhaustive, deeply informed and compelling new book, bulging with scholarship. The strength of this book lies in the breadth of its quotations from unpublished primary sources. In deploying his material, Dalrymple shows he has the two essential gifts of the historian: a grasp of detail and an ability to see the big picture Sara Wheeler, Daily Telegraph

A magnificent, multi-dimensional book which shames the simplistic efforts of previous writers David Gilmour, Spectator

A riveting account The animating spirit of the book is Delhi itself Economist

A terrific retelling of the event that ended Zafars reign the Indian mutiny of 1857, The Rajs Stalingrad. He has found a wonderful treasure trove of documents at the Indian National Archives and thanks to these rich sources The Last Mughal brims with life, colour and complexity, and it will make the most jingoistic reader think again about the effects of British rule on India This is an outstanding book, distinguished by its painstaking research, narrative flair and imaginative sympathy. Dalrymple writes with a burning anger, but never loses sight of his obligation to the reader. The result is one of the best history books of the year Evening Standard

Thanks to an understanding of India gained during a twenty-year familiarity with Delhi, and an indefatigable pursuit of primary sources, Dalrymple has produced a finely balanced account of the greatest armed challenge faced by any European power during the 19th century, and of the bloodthirsty revenge the British exacted on those who dared to rise up against them Financial Times

Dalrymple is an outstandingly gifted travel writer and historian who excels himself in his latest work. One of its many merits is that it calls upon hitherto unpublished Urdu and Persian material in Indian archives to tell the story from an Indian as well as a British perspective. This is an angry book as well as a very good one Max Hastings, Sunday Times

Brilliantly nuanced Dalrymple has here written an account of the Indian mutiny such as we have never had before, of the events leading up to it and of its aftermath, seen through the prism of the last emperors life. He has vividly described the street life of the Mughal capital in the days before the catastrophe happened, he has put his finger deftly on every crucial point in the story, which earlier historians have sometimes missed, and he has supplied some of the most informative footnotes I have ever read. On top of that, he has splendidly conveyed the sheer joy of researching a piece of history, something every true historian knows Geoffrey Moorhouse, Guardian

Much more than a retelling of the 1857 Uprising, Dalrymples sumptuously sourced and beautifully composed narrative follows the downfall of the Mughal dynasty, and celebrates the perishable elegance of its culture in early 19 century Delhi Boyd Tonkin, Independent

What marks out William Dalrymple out among other contemporary historians of India is his relish for the subject. His love of the country permeates every page of this new book His research has been prodigious, his enthusiasm is infectious and he is an incomparable guide. Dalrymple writes with great verve, clarity and style Sebastian Shakespeare, Literary Review

Brilliant on the repetitive cycles of history, unashamedly drawing parallels with today, combatative on the origins of religious fundamentalism, The Last Mughal is a passionate and angry book, fuelled equally strongly by a love of India and a hatred of misrepresentation and repression Nicola Barr, Guardian

Diligently researched and densely informative Dalrymples work laments the loss of an elegant tradition, a celebration of what was lost, the tone changing from epic to elegy and back Aamer Hussein, Independent

A skilfully written, impeccably researched history Observer

The Indian rebellion of 1857-8 and the deposition of the last Mughal Emperor were events of epochal importance. William Dalrymple tells this dramatic and tragic story with literary elegance, erudition and a wealth of new material C.A. Bayly, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge

William Dalrymple brilliantly evokes the tense equilibrium on the eve of the Indian Mutiny, and with pace and panache, leads us to the explosion Dalrymples towering achievement in providing almost hourly detail lies in his sources. Drawing widely on Persian and Urdu manuscripts, he narrates the chaos through memoirs, letters, official reports and a sweeping understanding of Indian and Muslim cultures. Dalrymple tells the story of the British retribution with anger and horror Michael Binyon, The Times

Dalrymple builds an urban narrative as evocative as Richard Cobbs depiction of Revolutionary Paris There is so much to admire in this book the depth of historical research, the finely evocative writing, the extraordinary rapport with the cultural world of late Mughal India. It is also in many ways a remarkably humane and egalitarian history A splendid work of empathetic scholarship few reinterpretations of 1857 will be as bold, as insightful, or as challenging as this Times Literary Supplement

No previous book has delved so deeply into the history of Delhi in those days, nor painted such a vivid portrait of the late Mughal court Mike Dash, Sunday Telegraph

Excellent Dalrymples best book. Not only is it a fascinating biography of Zafar, it is a portrait of this crumbling city that Dalrymple clearly knows inside out, and confirms the authors position as the foremost expert on India of his generation Geographical

Mesmerising gripping and beautifully written Good Book Guide

From the Indian reviews:

Narrative history at its very best a gripping story seen through the eyes of the Britons and Indians who were caught up in the maelstrom. At the same time the book provides larger insights into the nature of the uprising Dalrymples account is both evocative and sensitive Swapan Dasgupta,