Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj

Caroline M. Hallsworth is a librarian at Cambrian College in Sudbury.

In Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj, Marian Fowler introduces the reader to Emily Eden, Charlotte Canning, Edith Lytton, and Mary Curzon and to their experiences in the dynamic worlds of Indian culture, society, and politics.

Fowler draws heavily on the journals, letters, and artwork of the women she studies, thus allowing their impressions and experiences to live vividly on the pages of her book. At the same time, Fowler’s extensive research (as documented in her impressive bibliography) allows her to control the text, to place events within their historical context, and to chart the changing attitudes of the British in India. Fowler presumes that the reader has no prior knowledge of Indian history and has adapted her text accordingly.

Below the Peacock Fan is well written, thus drawing the reader into and through an historical study which is difficult to put down.