The Jewel in the Crown

The Jewel in the Crown is the 1966 novel by Paul Scott that starts his Raj Quartet. Much of the novel is written in the form of interviews and reports of conversations and research from the point of view of a narrator. Other portions are in the form of letters from one character to another or entries in their diaries. Still others take the form of reports from an omniscient observer. The story is set in 1942 in Mayapore, a fictional city in an unnamed British province of India. The province, which is located in northern India, shares characteristics with Punjab and the United Provinces. The... names of places and people suggest a connection to Bengal; however, the physical characteristics place the setting in north-central India, rather than in northeast India. The province has an agricultural plain and, in the north, a mountainous region. Dibrapur is a smaller town about 75 miles away. Mayapore, although not the capital of the province, is a relatively large city, with a significant British presence in the cantonment area, where native Indians are not permitted to live. Across the rail lines lies the “black town,” where the native population resides.
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