Mulk Raj Anand : Private Life of an Indian Prince

Portrait of a Rajah
Rajastan, c 1800

Though recommended on Wikipedia as "one of Anand's most impressive and important works", this has to be one of the worst books I've ever read (or, at least, finished)


It's just a lurid jaunt through class warfare, with the Rajput Indian Prince of this story as the standard bearer for a ruling class that is predatory, self-centered, cruel, and ultimately self-destructive.



Presumably the author, and his intended readership, took some pleasure in following his relentless descent through depravity into raving madness,  in that period immediately following the British Raj when the hundreds of small kingdoms were being incorporated into the new nation of India.

None of the details ring true and none of the characters emerge beyond stereotype.


So why did I keep on reading it, all the way to the bitter end ?

I suppose it was just a fascination with watching a train wreck - the life of the prince as well as the novel itself.