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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
- Sales Rank: #162452 in Books
- Published on: 1998-10-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .80" w x 5.50" l, .59 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 215 pages
Review
“[One of] the top 10 books about the British in India. . . . It was the Raj Quartet that made Scott’s name, but I prefer the coda to the series. Staying On describes the intolerable Tusker, the retired Indian army officer who has made a financial horlicks by staying on in a small hill town after independence, and his long-suffering wife Lucy, who see their old world shrinking as the new India rises around them, literally so in the shape of the ghastly Shiraz hotel. Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson were perfect in the TV version, but the book is a joy and makes an elegiac farewell to the Raj.” (Ferdinand Mount, author of "The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805-1905" Guardian)
From the Publisher
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About the Author
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.
Most helpful customer reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Touching the very strings of our soul's harp...
By Elitsa Arnaudova
In his sequel of The Raj Quartet Paul Scott depicts the life of two of the minor characters Tusker and Lucy Smalley. This is the appealing story of the last surviving members of the old school of British in Pankot, a town in India, 24 years after the Independence. Covering only a few months, it makes us witnesses of a whole lifetime. Frankly told, often causing us to feel a lump in our throats, Scott's novel skillfully pictures the emotional impact the débãcle of the British imperialism in India has on a family who chose to stay on.
It took me a while to become fully immersed in the book due to its unusual beginning. The very first page tells of the death of Tusker Smalley, which, in fact, is also the end of that elegiac psychological novel. As I read pretty much the same description of the very same episode at the end of the book, I felt something totally different. Since Tusker was already a friend of mine, his ways not just a weird old man's habitudes, his life not merely a consecution of events, but the result of unfavourable circumstances and crucial decisions, his death grieved me deeply.
The divergence between the story and the plot draws us into a mazy time puzzle, which we have to arrange for ourselves. We are shown into the all-embracing socio-historical setting both before and after the Independence in 1947 through the eyes of Mr and Mrs Smalley, their servant Ibrahim, and the manager of the hotel where they live, Mr Bhoolobhoy. The various perspectives contribute to the comprehension and comprehensiveness of this fading Anglo-Indian portrait of a whole civilization in miniature.
The character of Lucy Smalley is similarly developed through a number of retrospections. In her imaginary conversations with the young Englishman Mr Turner she looks back with bitterness on the days of the raj, most of which pass under the sign of the imposed British hierarchy. Just when she achieves the aspired position of Colonel's Lady "the old hierarchy collapsed and a new one, the Indian one, took its place". Thus, nothing changes for them because the new race of sahibs and memashibs places them as far down in the social scale as the Eurasians in the days of the raj.
The changes brought about by the Independence estrange Lucy and Tusker even more than before. The lack of communication cuts them off from one another and makes them live separate lives under the same roof. He has a rude awakening when he realizes that the huge rise in the cost of living in England prices them out of the home market and they must stay on in India. This leads to his "personality change", as Lucy calls it. She, for her part, is terribly lonely because in this new world she has become "a black sheep in reverse exposure". She fears the moment when her ill husband will pass away and she will be destitute because, `She would be alone in a foreign country. There would be no one of her own kind, her own colour, no close friend by whom to be comforted or on whom she could rely for help and guidance."
Staying on is not a novel of action, but one of contemplation and speculation. Its very title implies passivity. It however, turns out to be misleading for in Tusker and Lucy's case staying on in India requires strong will and endurance. In fact, this paradox makes Tusker and Lucy analyze and reconsider their lives; makes them realize that their happiness was sacrificed part because of circumstances, part for habits' sake. The profundity of their psychological portraits, the moving episodes, even the purifying humour turn this novel into a quest for our own inner selves. Thus, even though the end of Staying On is well-known from the very first line, it still strikes us with its poignancy for we have changed our perception and have turned into Tusker and Lucy's best friend who knows all they've been through,
So when Lucy sits on her "throne" in the bathroom, appealing to Tusker:
...Tusker, I hold out my hand, and beg you, Tusker, beg, beg you to take it and take me with you. How can you not, Tusker? Oh, Tusker, Tusker, Tusker, how can you make me stay here by myself while you yourself go home?
what I hear is the echo of the record Lucy loves best, Chloë:
Oh through the black of night, I gotta be where you are. If it's wrong or right, I gotta go where you are. I'll roam through the dismal swamplands, searching for you. If you are lost there let me be there too...
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Not the brightest jewel in the crown for all...
By aruna
Staying On was quite a discovery. I have not read Paul Scott's novels though I have seen the tele serial based on the Jewel in the Crown.
With a small cast of characters set in a small hill station of Pankot the author has created a microcosm of life of the Britishers who stayed on. The novel impresses by its depth and life like portrayal.
The main cast of characters in the novel are:
- old English couple Tusker Smalley , a retired Colonel of the British Army and his wife Lucy Smalley,
- Lila Bhoolabhoy the landlady of the Lodge where the Smalley's live, her husband Francis Bhoolabhoy -Manager of the hotel owned by her and Tuskers good friend,
- Ibrahim the Smalley's household help,
- Joseph the mali( gardner),
The Smalley's are few of the Britishers who have stayed on in India after independence.The reader joins the Smalleys and their little world in Pankot somewhere in 1972, a good 15 years after independence. In the days of the raj they were at the lower end of the pecking order, and had a middle class life. But now things are getting worse. Their situation is best summarized when Tusker explains to his wife
" Perhaps for a white person being poor in England's better than being poor in India though by average Indian standards we're rich if not by the standards of Indians we mix with."
Now the forty year old relationship of Smalley's is under strain as old age, ill health and limited resources start to have a telling effect. The future looks grim. Their communication is breaking down and the reasons for staying on get questioned by Lucy. The author deftly uses simple day to day events like making a poached egg for breakfast, going for a movie or inviting Father Sebastian and Susy for dinner to focus on the deteriorating relationship of the Smalley couple. The novel covers only a few months but the author gives an insight into Smalley's past lives through letters, monologues and Lucy's imaginary talk with an expected guest- Mr Turner.
The author develops the tragedy looming for the Smalley's in slow but subtle fashion. The build up starts with something as innocuous as the cutting of grass in the lawn. Tusker starts to get aggravated with the uncut grass, something which was to be done by the landlady as a part of the agreement. To mitiigate Tusker's anger, Lucy engages a mali but not before manipulation of sorts to make it appear as if the mali is employed by the landlady. This seems only to give a false lull to the storm which is building up around the Smalley's. Lila the landlady has joined a consortium and is planning to evict the couple so that she can develop the property.
The post independence era of the 70's in India with its focus on development provides a sharp backdrop to the vestiges of the raj symbolised by the slow moving seemingly uneventful life of the Smalley's. Each of the main character is vividly portrayed. They are life like we see them grow as the events unfold. Tusker begins to silently understand what is going on. Lucy and Francis Bhoolabhoy start to go on their offensive with their respective spouses as they get pushed to the wall. Lucy is becoming insecure with Tusker's poor health and is not sure how she will live after him. This leads Lucy to get her husband to tell her the state of finances. Tusker does so in a letter which is his last letter and the only love letter of Lucy's life. Francis wants to stay on in Pankot while is wife wants to develop the property become rich and travel. He protests against Lila's designs but eventually is forced to type a nasty letter to Tusker to vacate the lodge which is the last letter Tusker reads and possibly dies of shock. The irony and the pathos arising from the two letters is shattering.
Even though the novel opens with Tusker's death. The author keeps the interest going as he takes us back and forth to unravel the Smalley's life. In the end, we are able to have a context to Tusker's death and therefore a deeper understanding of the tragedy.
The language employed gives the novel a real feel. The author uses a lot of Hindi colloquial word such as mallum, mali, ek dum, bus, daftar, dak, Burra Memsahib. So are many of the dialogues, in particular the exchanges by Ibrahim with his `sacred phrases'.
He explains the Smalley's eccentricity to the confused young mali " It is a different kind of pagal (mad in Hindi). English kind."
Elsewhere Ibrahim tells the mali " Given push, not pushed. Get idiom right." As he explains getting the push - chucked out of the employ of Smalley's.
The author has an eye for detail and some of the day to day things like a tonga ride are beautifully captured. I can vouch for the description having commuted to school in a tonga.
Lucy Smalley explains in her imaginary chat with Turner, an expected guest,- ` Anyway I thought this (tonga) was better than a taxi, quite the best way to bring you to the club because sitting like we are with our backs to the driver and looking back at what we're leaving behind you get this gradually unfolding and expanding view of the Pankot valley.'
The comic side of the novel gives it a charm of its own. The thrones of the Smalley's in their toilets, the Bhoolabhoys love making are of course some of the hilarious ones.
This is a novel is contemplation and reflection. It explores the depth of relationships and how they can get stretched to the limit. It has a slow and subtle movement. It will however hold special appeal to those familiar with India of early post independence era and those who have had in their neighborhood Britishers who stayed on.
For those who might be interested there is a movie called `36 Chowringhee Lane' (1981) which deals with the life of a British teacher and her brother in post independence India. This was a critically acclaimed movie which won a few Bafta nominations. The lead actress got Evening Standard British Film Awards for the best actress for 1982.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Paul Scott's affectionate sequel to The Raj Quartet
By Kenneth Walter Simpson
This is a humorously affectionate sequel to Paul Scott's intriguing account of life in India under British colonial rule between 1942 and eventual independence in 1947. We meet Colonel 'Tusker' Smalley (Indian Army Rtd) who has elected to stay on at the old hill station of Pankot. The novel begins at the end, with Tusker's death in 1972. We meet the Bhoolabhoys, owners of Smith's, the hotel where Tusker and his wife Lucy, occupy an annexe - or small bungalow. The formidable and rich Mrs Bhoolabhoy is the owner and dominates her inoffensive husband. On Monday evenings Mr Boolabhoy drinks and reminisces wirh Tusker, who still tends to patronize Mr Bhoolabhoy, who doesn't seem to mind and enjoys listening to his stories. Tusker regularly fires his servant, Ibrahim who takes it philosophically, knowing he will soon be re-hired. On this last occasion Ibrahim hands Tusker a letter from management (Mrs Boolabhoy) just before he - Tusker - expires. One suspects the letter contains a non renewal of tenancy notice, the culmination of an ongoing dispute over fees between Mrs Boolabhoy and Tusker. The idiosyncrasies of all the characters, from the choleric Tusker to the philosophical Ibrahim and the explosive Mrs Boolabhoy, are treated amusingly, affectionately and with great skill.
We also catch up with the Laytons who also resided in Pankot - from the Raj Quartet. We learn that Lt-Col Layton has died - his snobbish wife, Mildred having predeceased him. He was father to Sarah and the tragic Susan, who took major roles during those tumultuous times. They, however, didn't stay on, but retired to their home, Combe Lodge Combe Magnus, Surrey. Guy Perron, another major character, had married Sarah Layton - the real hero and heroine of The Raj Quartet.
Staying on is wonderful conclusion to Paul Scott's outstanding series, and is a fitting epitaph to British rule in India.The Learning Process: Some Creative Impressions
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