WILLIAM DALRYMPLE is the author of seven previous works of
history and travel, including "City of Djinns, " which won the
Young British Writer of the Year Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel
Book Award; the best-selling "From the Holy Mountain;""White
Mughals, " which won Britain's most prestigious history prize, the
Wolfson; and "The Last Mughal, " which won the Duff Cooper Prize
for History and Biography. He divides his time between New Delhi
and London, and is a contributor to "The New York Review of Books"
and "The New Yorker."
Praise for William Dalrymple's "Return of a King"
"More than timely . . . The author's deep research provides a whole
new take on almost every aspect of the story. Mr. Dalrymple is a
skilled storyteller and fills important gaps, mining new sources. .
. . Mr. Dalrymple's writing is sly, charming and clever. His
histories read like novels. [His] book delights and shocks."
--Michael Fathers, "The Wall Street Journal"
"The British humiliation in the so-called First Anglo-Afghan War .
. . has been told often before but perhaps never so well as by
Dalrymple. . . . An absorbing and beautifully written account of a
doomed effort to control an apparently uncontrollably
population."
--"Booklist "(starred review)
"By turns epic, thrilling, and utterly appalling, at once deeply
researched and beautifully paced, "Return of a King "should win
every prize for which it's eligible. Yet William Dalrymple has done
more than write a brilliant work of history; in these pages he also
holds up a distant mirror to the West's more recent, and comparably
disastrous, military incursions into Afghanistan. . . . A
magnificent and shocking story . . . It is difficult to do justice
to the evenhandedness, vivid writing, and extensive scholarship
supporting every detail of "Return of a King.""
--Michael Dirda, "Bookforum"
"["Return of a King"] brings new insights and extends earlier ones
to a wider public. . . . Dalrymple lets the action play out
relentlessly and compellingly, yet has endnotes, glossary,
bibliography, and index of a high scholarly standard. . . . The
author's attentiveness to Afghan voices means the local people
become real personalities, rather than ciphers. . . . [Dalrymple's]
commitment to the historical project is so clear and his writing so
attractive."
--Elizabeth Gaigent, "Times Literary Supplement" (London)
"A masterful history . . . And as the latest occupying force in
Afghanistan negotiates its exit, this chronicle seems all too
relevant now. . . . The signal achievement of this work is that it
makes a nearly two-century-old war seem disturbingly fresh. It
makes for grim reading. Like the current adventure in Afghanistan,
this first one was undone by the unsustainable cost of occupation,
waning political and public interest, and the need to divert
resources. . . . Mr. Dalrymple's book is a timely reminder of the
way that wars can begin with promise but end in disgrace."
--"The Economist"
"[The Afghan] saga has been recounted many times, but never that I
can recall as well as by Dalrymple. He is a master storyteller,
whose special gift lies in the use of indigenous sources, so often
neglected by imperial chroniclers. . . . Almost every page of
Dalrymple's splendid narrative echoes with latter-day
reverberations."
--Max Hastings, "The Times "(London)
"["Return of a King"] shows all the elements we have come to expect
from Dalrymple: the clear, fluid prose, the ability to give complex
historical events shape, story and meaning, the use of new local
sources to allow the voices of the people . . . to be heard
alongside the much-better documented accounts of the invaders, the
deep knowledge and affection for the magnificently rich culture of
the Mughals and their various copiers and a lack of patience with
tiresome orientalist visions of the 'proud Pashtun' or 'noble
Afghan.' This is clear-eyed, non-judgmental, sober history,
beautifully told."
--Jason Burke, "The Observer"
"Dalrymple, in his sparkling new history of the First Anglo-Afghan
War (1839-42), draws striking parallels between that 19th century
conflict and NATO's current Afghan imbroglio. . . . More is the
pity that Dalrymple's book--the first serious study of the war for
almost 50 years, and the only history in English to use extensive
Afghan sources--was not available in 2001. . . . Extensively
researched (with much new material) and beautifully written, it
covers the story from the perspective of both invaders and invaded,
and is by far the most comprehensive history of the conflict yet
written. It also says important things about war and why it's
waged."
--Saul David, "The Daily Telegraph"
"Magnificent . . . ["Return of a King"] is a history of the British
invasion of Afghanistan in 1839, one of those passages of history
the close examination of which requires a strong stomach--and which
therefore also require the most thorough investigation. The
seductive artistry of Dalrymple's narrative gift draws the reader
into events that are sometimes almost unbearable, but his account
is so perceptive and so warmly humane that one is never tempted to
break away. . . . This book would be compulsive reading even if it
were not a uniquely valuable history."
--Diana Athill, "The Guardian"
"In Dalrymple's usual happy style of historical narrative, applied
to a fascinating, neat and highly suggestive series of events, this
long and involved book will be a great success, and bring the
famous story to a large new audience."
--Philip Hensher, "The Spectator"
"This is vintage Dalrymple: warp-speed historical narrative,
meticulously researched. . . . My only regret reading this
wonderful history is that it was not published a decade
earlier."
--Justin Marozzi, "The Evening Standard"
"A meticulous historian and felicitous writer, Dalrymple is also a
deep thinker. This is one history book that matters for making
sense of Afghanistan, and Britain, today as well as in the
past."
--Rosemary Goring, "Sunday Herald"
"[A] marvellous book . . . brilliant, exact language . . . There is
much in Dalrymple's superb book that has contemporary
resonance."
--Hugh MacDonald, "Sunday Herald"
" "
"William Dalrymple is a master storyteller, who breathes such
passion, vivacity and animation into the historical characters of
the First Anglo-Afghan war of 1839-42 that at the end of the
567-page book you feel you have marched, fought, dined and plotted
with them all. . . . "Return of a King" is not just an animated and
highly literate retelling of a chapter of early 19th-centruy
British military history, but also a determined attempt to reach
out and influence the politicians and policy-makers of our modern
world. . . . It is [the book's] mastery of intimate details, as
well as the landscape and the grand rivalry between empires, with
which Dalrymple wins our trust and keeps our interest."
--Barnaby Rogerson, "The Independent"
"Few writers could go wrong with a story populated with so many
villains, rogues, poltroons, swashbucklers, spies, assassins and
heroes. But none would make a better job of it than William
Dalrymple in this thrilling, magnificently evocative "Return of a
King.""
--James Delingpole, "Mail on Sunday"
"Complex and remarkable . . . As taut and richly embroidered as a
great novel. . . . This book is a masterpiece of nuanced writing
and research, and a thrilling account of a watershed Victorian
conflict."
--Rupert Edis, "The Sunday Telegraph"
"Sensationally good . . . Dalrymple writes the kind of history that
few historians can match. Sure, they can all add a footnote or two
about our knowledge of the past, but how many of them actually
change the whole way in which we look on it? . . . A truly epic
story of imperial ambition and hubris with profound lessons for our
own times. Compared to this--Britain's greatest military defeat in
the 19th century--Custer's Last Stand is an insignificant skirmish.
I doubt that I'll read a better written or more important history
book all year."
--David Robinson, "The Scotsman"
"[A] brilliant new book . . . It is to be hoped that any future
British leader contemplating intervention in Afghanistan, or any
other part of the Muslim world, will read Dalrymple's book. For
while it is first and foremost a valuable contribution to the
history of Afghanistan and the British Raj, it is also intended to
draw parallels and convey lessons about the latest western
involvement in the region."
--Anatol Lieven, "Financial Times"
"A fascinating account . . . The story of the first Anglo-Afghan
war and the retreat from Kabul in 1842 has been told many times
before. But Dalrymple does it better; he has spent years piecing
together archival material in Delhi, Lahore, London and elsewhere.
He has wandered the streets of Kabul looking for, and finding,
traces of Afghan epic poetry on the conflict. Many of his sources
are previously untouched by other Western writers and as with his
previous books, his vivid prose is a joy to read. . . . Dalrymple
is a masterful narrator . . . The range of new sources employed
adds more depth to an already complex history, yet he navigates
deftly between British, Afghan, Indian and Russian sources without
losing his thread. . . . A gem of a book and one hell of a
story."
--Edward Burke, "Dublin Review of Books"
"This is a monumentally important book. . . . Exemplary historian
that he is, Dalrymple has discovered hitherto unknown sources. . .
This is history as it should be written: revisionist, readable and
rollicking."
--Sebastian Shakespeare, "Tatler"
"William Dalrymple combines in himself three remarkable talents.
First, he is a researcher par excellence. Second, he has the
insight of a historian. And third, as a writer of exceptional
dexterity, he is able to make historical research very readable.
The story is told in graphic detail, but it unfolds like a
cinematic screenplay through the lives of the principal dramatis
personae--their personalities, personal quirks, motivating
ambitions and family background are etched out to make them living
characters travelling along with the reader's journey. It is not
easy to recount dry historical facts in this manner, but Mr
Dalrymple--as he has done with all his historical books -
personally travelled to the principal venues, revisited the sites
of battles, forts, palaces, towns and ordinary homes, and talked to
scores of people to capture the flavour of the times about which he
is writing. In addition, he has located crucial new material in
Russian, Urdu and Persian and used, for the first time in English,
nine previously untranslated full-length accounts of the conflict,
including the autobiography of the key Afghan king, Shah
Shuja."
--Pavan K Varma, "Business Standard"
"To call it anything less than a triumph would be an
understatement."
--Saurabh Kumar Shahi, "Sunday Indian"
UK Praise for William Dalrymple's "Return of a King"
"A masterful history . . . And as the latest occupying force in
Afghanistan negotiates its exit, this chronicle seems all too
relevant now. . . . The signal achievement of this work is that it
makes a nearly two-century-old war seem disturbingly fresh. It
makes for grim reading. Like the current adventure in Afghanistan,
this first one was undone by the unsustainable cost of occupation,
waning political and public interest, and the need to divert
resources. . . . Mr. Dalrymple's book is a timely reminder of the
way that wars can begin with promise but end in disgrace."
--"The Economist"
"[The Afghan] saga has been recounted many times, but never that I
can recall as well as by Dalrymple. He is a master storyteller,
whose special gift lies in the use of indigenous sources, so often
neglected by imperial chroniclers. . . . Almost every page of
Dalrymple's splendid narrative echoes with latter-day
reverberations."
--Max Hastings, "The Times "(London)
"["Return of a King"] shows all the elements we have come to expect
from Dalrymple: the clear, fluid prose, the ability to give complex
historical events shape, story and meaning, the use of new local
sources to allow the voices of the people . . . to be heard
alongside the much-better documented accounts of the invaders, the
deep knowledge and affection for the magnificently rich culture of
the Mughals and their various copiers and a lack of patience with
tiresome orientalist visions of the 'proud Pashtun' or 'noble
Afghan.' This is clear-eyed, non-judgmental, sober history,
beautifully told."
--Jason Burke, "The Observer"
"Dalrymple, in his sparkling new history of the First Anglo-Afghan
War (1839-42), draws striking parallels between that 19th century
conflict and NATO's current Afghan imbroglio. . . . More is the
pity that Dalrymple's book--the first serious study of the war for
almost 50 years, and the only history in English
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