Reviewed Holmes of the Raj - Vithal Rajan
May 23, 2011 02:20 PM
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Knowing that many acute readers of detective fiction might chance on the book, I left several trails to its real character, which unfortunately found no detective.
In Chapter one, very early, I introduced a character Subaltern Guha who is working on the living conditions of the poor. As every...Read more
Commented on deepak27's review
May 23, 2011 02:12 PM
As the author of HOLMES OF THE RAJ I am indeed grateful to everyone who has read and hated the book. This is far better than being ignored. Also strong opinions show passion, and a love for books, which is getting quite rare in Indian youth.
However, the book was liked by a number of others as we...ll. For example, Roger Johnson, Secretary of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London and Editor of its newsletter called it: ‘the most stimulating Holmes fiction I have read in years’[no: 266 26 September 2006]. Dilip Bobb, Managing Editor India Today, Feb 26, 2010, called the book ‘clever stuff, but a little too clever, very little detecting and history as adventure. Along the way, Holmes also manages to invent the doosra, which is an amazingly accurate way to describe this book.’
It is because I bowled a doosra, that I thought I owed an explanation to all Indian Sherlock Holmes fans, whom I seem to have offended. It is partly given in the last chapter of my latest book: The Year of High Treason, reproduced below:
Afterword
in THE YEAR OF HIGH TREASON, Rupa 2011
MisWriting Holmes and other Heroes
When the King James Version of the Bible had been translated into English, the team of translators wrote out an introduction, terming it ‘The Apologia.’ James I, also known as the wisest fool in Christendom, said that he did not think the Bible needed an apology! It was explained to the king that what was meant was ‘a defence’ of the translation into English. This anecdote could be put forward as an early validation of the Saussure system of reading texts, by which what is really signified by a word or sign can only be grasped in relation to the rest that is intentioned in the text.
This is a book of light fiction, and I would advise such of my readers as there are to go straight to the story. However, I must also admit that many of my friends, and the few critics who have deigned to glance through my writing, have all asked me questions for which I have only parRead More
