⋙ Download The Far Pavilions M M Kaye 9780312151256 Books

The Far Pavilions M M Kaye 9780312151256 Books

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The Far Pavilions M M Kaye 9780312151256 Books

This book is a classic and I dearly love it. I read it first about 40 years ago when I was single. In hard cover it's two volumes of perhaps 400+ pages each. I read it in one weekend (both volumes). I was captivated by the story and when it was done I was disappointed that there wasn't more.

Mrs. Kaye was born in India and lived there a good deal of her life. Her love of the people and culture comes through loud and clear. I learned more about India from this book and Shadow of the Moon than any history course I've taken.

This book starts out on the slower side, and is written in an older style. Those are not negatives. Folks used to having the action start in the first paragraph might give up too soon. This book has complex characters who are fully developed against a rich and complicated cultural tapestry.

In essence, this is a love story, an impossible love story, but one that will not be denied. The story encompasses duty, love, honor, the bond of brothers in arms, beauty, cruelty, betrayal, wisdom, loyalty, and insular stupidity (not on the part of the main characters). Despite being English Mrs. Kaye called spades against her own countrymen, much to her credit.

I've read this book perhaps six or seven times and am about to read it again. I recently discovered that this and Shadow of the Moon were now available on Kindle and promptly bought them in that format. I recommend them both highly... they're on my top 10 books all time. For those who may have seen the mini-series with Ben Kingsley major events in the story are out of order in the screen version which for me ruined an otherwise good series.


Tags : The Far Pavilions [M. M. Kaye] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This sweeping epic set in 19th-century India begins in the foothills of the towering Himalayas and follows a young Indian-born orphan as he's raised in England and later returns to India where he falls in love with an Indian princess and struggles with cultural divides. The Far Pavilions </i>is itself a Himalayan achievement,M. M. Kaye,The Far Pavilions,St. Martin's Griffin,031215125X,Historical,Afghan Wars,British - India,Historical fiction,Orphans - India,War stories,060403 SMP Trade Paper-SMP Trade Paper All Prior,FICTION Historical General,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction-Coming of Age,GENERAL,Historical - General,KAYE, M. M. (MARY MARGARET) - PROSE & CRITICISM,ScholarlyUndergraduate,United States,historical fiction; historical novels; historical fiction novels; india; colonial india; war stories; british literature; british empire; british authors; english literature; english authors; bestselling authors; epic fiction; epic historical fiction; action and adventure; adventure stories for adults; adventure stories; indian authors

The Far Pavilions M M Kaye 9780312151256 Books Reviews

I love this book! It has everything; action, adventure, history, romance and intrigue. It is loosely based on real events in history and people who really lived. I like to read it at least once each year. However, in paper form, it is huge. There are so many pages that it’s difficult to carry around or take on a plane. In the kindle version, the problem has been solved. I’m so happy it has been added to the kindle library.
It took nearly 5 months, but I have finally finished this epic tale of star-crossed lovers searching for a place to belong, set amid the political intrigues, cruelties and hubris of the British Raj. At almost 49 hours, it's by far the longest audiobook I've yet tackled. Narrator Vikas Adam was an expert guide, and much of the story had me utterly captivated. But this novel had a couple of glaring flaws that kept me from giving it 5 stars (although, in the end, it did seem to add up to more than the sum of its parts).

I will leave a detailed recounting of the plot to other reviewers. At the heart of the story is the struggle of Ashton Pelham Martin, born British but raised Indian, to reconcile the two halves of himself. His beloved, Anjuli, gives the book its soul. A neglected Indian princess, she too is "half caste," valued solely for the emotional support she gives her spoiled, volatile younger sister, Shushila. The same intolerance and prejudice that makes both Ash and Juli outcasts in their own country, places seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the path of their love.

The story managed to have both a breathtaking scope - sweeping from the Himalayas to the parched deserts of India and back again to the Hindu Kush - and a remarkable intimacy, revealing the private inner lives of a huge cast of characters. The novel highlighted how people find both comfort and frustration in cultural customs and traditions. They give human beings a place to belong while simultaneously limiting and stifling them.

Despite all of the other compelling characters, Ash and Juli's saga was so central to the book's emotional core that the story lost its way when its focus shifted to the Second Afghan War and the ill-fated British mission to Kabul. Try as I might, I was not as engrossed in the fate of Lt. Walter Hamilton, Ash's best friend, especially as both Ash and Juli were relegated to the role of bystanders. The final quarter of the book dragged, taking me a few weeks to finish. I wish M.M. Kaye had used that section as the basis for a second book, rather than trying to shoehorn it into Ash and Juli's story.

The key figures in the siege against the British mission were based on real people. Therefore, the story seemed unnecessarily padded in this final section, as if Kaye were just marking time to arrive at the major historical events. Throughout the book, she also showed a weakness for heavy-handed foreshadowing, to the point I could predict major plot twists long before they happened. In the final quarter, she beat the reader over the head with it, until I was almost relieved to finally reach the end (where I felt Ash and Juli's story was wrapped up too hastily).

However, the book's many strengths made it compelling and worthwhile, and I'll probably listen to or read the story again someday. Vikas Adam was an extraordinary narrator, giving consistent, distinctive voices to all of the characters. I especially loved how he used different accents for Ash, depending on whether he was thinking or speaking in English or in an Indian dialect.
This book is a classic and I dearly love it. I read it first about 40 years ago when I was single. In hard cover it's two volumes of perhaps 400+ pages each. I read it in one weekend (both volumes). I was captivated by the story and when it was done I was disappointed that there wasn't more.

Mrs. Kaye was born in India and lived there a good deal of her life. Her love of the people and culture comes through loud and clear. I learned more about India from this book and Shadow of the Moon than any history course I've taken.

This book starts out on the slower side, and is written in an older style. Those are not negatives. Folks used to having the action start in the first paragraph might give up too soon. This book has complex characters who are fully developed against a rich and complicated cultural tapestry.

In essence, this is a love story, an impossible love story, but one that will not be denied. The story encompasses duty, love, honor, the bond of brothers in arms, beauty, cruelty, betrayal, wisdom, loyalty, and insular stupidity (not on the part of the main characters). Despite being English Mrs. Kaye called spades against her own countrymen, much to her credit.

I've read this book perhaps six or seven times and am about to read it again. I recently discovered that this and Shadow of the Moon were now available on and promptly bought them in that format. I recommend them both highly... they're on my top 10 books all time. For those who may have seen the mini-series with Ben Kingsley major events in the story are out of order in the screen version which for me ruined an otherwise good series.