Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj

Tells the stories of Emily Eden, Charlotte Canning, Edith Lytton, and Mary Curzon, who found their lives, changed by their husband's or brother's appointment to India during the height of the British Empire

Combining women's studies and British Indian history, Fowler perceives great social skill and personal strength in the lives of four vicereinesEmily Eden, Charlotte Canning, Edith Lytton, and Mary Curzon. Their husbands are stereotypically portrayed as arrogant, egotistical brutes. As history, Fowler's account is acceptably accurate. The incorporation of women's issues, however, gives an unbalanced preoccupation with roles and impresses current social values on the interpretation of 19th-century British India. The questionable validity of this application, inadequate documentation, and highly generalized assertions seriously undermine the work. John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.