Clive: The Life and Death of a British Emperor - Hardcover

Harvey, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312265697 ISBN 13: 9780312265694

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2000

Synopsis

The real-life story of Robert Clive would be judged as wildly implausible if it came from the pen of a novelist.

Clive of India was one of the most extraordinary and colorful figures Britain ever produced. The founder of Britain's Indian empire, he was also Britain's first great guerrilla fighter by the age of twenty-seven, conqueror of Bengal at thirty-one, and avenging angel of righteousness against the greed of his own fellow-countrymen at forty-one. In his later life Parliament brought him under painful scrutiny and he ended up one of the most hated men in Britain. He died violently under still-mysterious circumstances just before his fiftieth birthday.

The story of Clive can be viewed on several levels: as a spirited military adventure by a man who defied death many times, who withstood the greatest siege in British military history, and conspired to force one of the most absolute and cruellest monarchs on earth off his throne; as the morality tale of a penniless young man who became the sole ruler of a huge empire, ended up as one of the richest men in Britain and was then brought to account and driven to despair; or as the story of a plundering early poacher-turned-gamekeeper who sought to establish a moral and legal order amidst slaughter and greed.

Clive today lies buried in an unknown grave in an obscure corner of rural Shropshire, a reflection of the controversy he aroused in his lifetime and that still surrounds his legacy and the manner of his death. In this lively and revealing study Robert Harvey illuminates Clive's life's journey from the green fields surrounding Market Drayton through his adventures in India, his drive to success and self-destruction, to his vicious and premature death, by suicide or murder.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Harvey is a former British MP who spent nine years on the foreign staff of The Economist, where he became assistant editor. He lives in Powys, Wales and London.

Reviews

The British, Churchill once remarked, liked their imperial heroes to be bold, ruthless, and, above all, tragic. Robert Clive certainly fit that bill. As much as any man, he was the^B founder of the British Raj in India. By the age of 35, he had conquered Bengal and amassed an immense fortune; his methods, although never questioned at the time, were generally^B brutal and reflected the difficulties of an ambitious man seeking advancement in a very^B tough neighborhood. Harvey, a former British M.P and journalist, effectively captures^B the complexities of a man capable of glorious achievements and self-destructive behavior. This is essentially a well-told tale of a fall from grace, with a bit of fodder for conspiracy buffs thrown in, as Harvey implies foul play rather than suicide as the cause of Clive's death at 49. Both general readers and specialists should find this an informative and intriguing examination of a short but brilliant life. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312265697
• ISBN 13: 9780312265694
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416