Series
Publication
Arrow (2005), 256 p.
Original publication date
1977
Collections
Awards
Description
In this sequel to The Raj Quartet, Colonel Tusker and Lucy Smalley stay on in the hills of Pankot after Indian independence deprives them of their colonial status. Finally fed up with accommodating her husband, Lucy claims a degree of independence herself. Eloquent and hilarious, she and Tusker act out class tensions among the British of the Raj and give voice to the loneliness, rage, and stubborn affection in their marriage. Staying On won the Booker Prize in 1977 and was made into a motion picture starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in 1979. "Staying On far transcends the events of its central action. . . . [The work] should help win for Scott . . . the reputation he deserves—as one of the best novelists to emerge from Britain's silver age."—Robert Towers, Newsweek "Scott's vision is both precise and painterly. Like an engraver cross-hatching in the illusion of fullness, he selects nuances that will make his characters take on depth and poignancy."—Jean G. Zorn, New York Times Book Review "A graceful comic coda to the earlier song of India. . . . No one writing knows or can evoke an Anglo-Indian setting better than Scott."—Paul Gray, Time "Staying On provides a sort of postscript to [Scott's] deservedly acclaimed The Raj Quartet. . . . He has, as it were, summoned up the Raj's ghost in Staying On. . . . It is the story of the living death, in retirement, and the final end of a walk-on character from the quartet. . . . Scott has completed the task of covering in the form of a fictional narrative the events leading up to India's partition and the achievement of independence in 1947. It is, on any showing, a creditable achievement."—Malcolm Muggeridge, New York Times Book Review… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member kidzdoc
Staying On, Paul Scott's last novel, was published in 1977 after the novels that made up The Raj Quartet and just before he was diagnosed with colon cancer, which would claim his life the following year. It is set in the small Indian hill town of Pangkot in 1972, where Colonel Tusker and Lucy
I enjoyed the first 50 or so pages of Staying On, with its descriptions of the different elements of postcolonial Indian society, but I began to lose interest after that, as the characters became less likable and their accounts and lives became more tiresome and less amusing. The denouement of the novel was disclosed in the book's first paragraph, which also limited its effectiveness and interest to this reader. This novel would be of interest to those who have read The Raj Quartet, but it is not recommended as a first book to read by Paul Scott.
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Smalley, the town's only remaining British residents, live in an annex of a colonial hotel managed by Francis Bhoolabhoy, a thin and meek practicing Christian who shares drinks and stories with the Colonel, and owned by his wife Lila, whose greed and ambition is exceeded only by her girth. The Smalleys are retired, childless, and attempt to preserve the old order, although their meager income and old age limit their influence and relevance. The Colonel is tormented by poor health, a wife who no longer respects him after he decided to spend his remaining years in India without considering her, and the inhospitable Mrs Bhoolabhoy, who wants the Smalleys to leave her property, by any means necessary.I enjoyed the first 50 or so pages of Staying On, with its descriptions of the different elements of postcolonial Indian society, but I began to lose interest after that, as the characters became less likable and their accounts and lives became more tiresome and less amusing. The denouement of the novel was disclosed in the book's first paragraph, which also limited its effectiveness and interest to this reader. This novel would be of interest to those who have read The Raj Quartet, but it is not recommended as a first book to read by Paul Scott.
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LibraryThing member John
This is a fine novel about the strain of human relationships, the missed opportunities to build something better together, the blindness to the needs and interests of the other, and, at the same time, the confused end to an empire. Set in India in the early 1970s, it concerns Tusker and Lucy
Lucy is increasingly embarrassed, hemmed in, and frustrated by Tusker's completely self-centred approach to life, and his increasingly bizarre, not to say obnoxious, behaviour towards all sorts of people, including Lucy herself. All the petty prejudices of the raj experience come through in the description of Lucy and Tusker's lives together with the small, but oh so important markings of progress and position in life; lives that are always marked in relation to the social status of others, rarely if ever for their own value and worth. Lucy does finally explode and berate Tusker, and assert her independence of thought and being, and she demands an accounting of how she will be set financially in the event of Tusker's death. Tusker is astonished with the confrontation but does as she asked, and writes a long note, explaining the situation, apologizing for his waste of money, his bad decisions, his manner, and for not saying it clearly as he should, that Lucy has always "been a good woman to me". This, for Lucy, is precious, and "the only love letter she had had in all the years that she lived". In the end, Lucy's worst dream is realized as she is left alone in a world where she fits only an eccentric niche and without her life-partner: "...I hold out my hand, and beg you, Tusker, beg, beg you to take it and take me with you. Hoe can you not, Tusker? Oh, Tusker, Tusker, Tusker, how can you make me stay here by myself while you yourself go home?".
(Nov/99)
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Smalley who, given a chance to return home when Tusker retired as a Colonel in the British Army in India, decided to stay on in the small hill town of Pankot. They live very predictable lives, in very straightened circumstances under increasing threat of eviction by their domineering landlady, Mrs. Bhoolabhoy. Lucy is increasingly embarrassed, hemmed in, and frustrated by Tusker's completely self-centred approach to life, and his increasingly bizarre, not to say obnoxious, behaviour towards all sorts of people, including Lucy herself. All the petty prejudices of the raj experience come through in the description of Lucy and Tusker's lives together with the small, but oh so important markings of progress and position in life; lives that are always marked in relation to the social status of others, rarely if ever for their own value and worth. Lucy does finally explode and berate Tusker, and assert her independence of thought and being, and she demands an accounting of how she will be set financially in the event of Tusker's death. Tusker is astonished with the confrontation but does as she asked, and writes a long note, explaining the situation, apologizing for his waste of money, his bad decisions, his manner, and for not saying it clearly as he should, that Lucy has always "been a good woman to me". This, for Lucy, is precious, and "the only love letter she had had in all the years that she lived". In the end, Lucy's worst dream is realized as she is left alone in a world where she fits only an eccentric niche and without her life-partner: "...I hold out my hand, and beg you, Tusker, beg, beg you to take it and take me with you. Hoe can you not, Tusker? Oh, Tusker, Tusker, Tusker, how can you make me stay here by myself while you yourself go home?".
(Nov/99)
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LibraryThing member thanesh
A very interesting book that I found appealed to me more and more as I read through it.
LibraryThing member LiseLPH
The somewhat tepid reviews of this book here don't do justice to its wonderful mixture of comedy and sadness. It's a virtuoso performance in writerly terms as well, because Scott, writing more freely here than in the Raj Quartet, slips between distant and close-up views, changes voice and tone,
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moves in and out of internal dialogue, and is able to give a voice to both English and Indian characters in a way that seems convincing, at least to a westerner. The book is very funny, too, as I suggested, especially in its portrayal of the ongoing battle between Mr and Mrs Bhoolaboy, as she tries to get rid of their old tenants the Tuskers, while he tries to save them. Show Less
LibraryThing member sianpr
A wry tale of a sad & fading English elderly couple who decide to stay on in postcolonial India. Tusker & his wife are neatly counter posed by the Indian couple running the down at heel hotel. An excellently told tale of the displacement of the Raj with corporate capitalism in 1950s India along
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with the rise of middle class Indians & the demise of English ex pats; a fitting epilogue to the Raj Quartet. Show Less
LibraryThing member idiotgirl
A wonderful little off-center coda to the Raj Quartet. Takes up the lives of a minor couple, the Smalleys, who stayed on after independence. Brings in the other stories obliquely through correspondence with Sarah. Am still very much a fan of Scott. These are books I definitely recommend.
LibraryThing member bodachliath
I'm still working my way through the list of Booker winners, and this one is the best I have read for some time. It is a poignant, tragicomic portrait of an ageing couple of British colonial functionaries effectively stranded in an old Indian hill station after "staying on" at independence. It
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mixes vibrant descriptions and comic set pieces with reflections on the legacy of the Raj and the nature of independent India. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cecrow
A standalone novel but truly a sequel to Scott's Raj Quartet, chock full of spoilers from those novels and with teasing glimpses of what happened to some of its characters. Colonel Smalley and his wife Lucie figured as minor characters in that saga. Where most of the British opted to return home
The Quartet had a fine finish, but you won't want to miss out on this fifth foray which is like a fine dessert after a four-course meal. It mostly sheds the quartet's complexity, with a focus on far fewer characters and with more comedic flourishes, but it also features Scott's masterful dalliance with chronology and his brilliant shifts among different perspectives. Like some other favourite epics, I've arrived at the very end of this enormous one only feeling regret that there isn't more.
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when India won its independence in 1947, the Smalleys "stayed on" in India and became anomalies in the otherwise Indian society that grew up around them, albeit thick with British legacy. The Quartet had a fine finish, but you won't want to miss out on this fifth foray which is like a fine dessert after a four-course meal. It mostly sheds the quartet's complexity, with a focus on far fewer characters and with more comedic flourishes, but it also features Scott's masterful dalliance with chronology and his brilliant shifts among different perspectives. Like some other favourite epics, I've arrived at the very end of this enormous one only feeling regret that there isn't more.
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LibraryThing member ivanfranko
A coda to the "Raj Quartet". The Smalleys have stayed on after independence, and slowly endured a life of diminishing returns as the old colonial society departs, money is frittered away, aging sets in.
Written with more evident humour than the quartet, the story nonetheless charts a poignant and
What a pity that Paul Scott passed away so early. He was the finest of story-tellers.
Written with more evident humour than the quartet, the story nonetheless charts a poignant and
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sad decline for an elderly couple, out of place and out of time.What a pity that Paul Scott passed away so early. He was the finest of story-tellers.
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LibraryThing member Kristelh
Story of a couple who decide to stay on in India after the British leave and India takes over. The characters are interesting but what I liked most was the look at this aging couple and the wife's sudden realization that she is going to be left a widow in India and doesn't even know what she'll
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have to live on and what she will do. There is also the examining of culture. Lucy left England, she was never quite good enough in British circles in India. In Lucy's thoughts we learn all this background story. It's a story of looking back, of reflection. A symbol of this retrospection is that their preferred conveyance is the Tonga, a horse-drawn carriage in which they choose to sit facing backwards, "looking back at what we're leaving behind". I like themes of aging and this book really captures it well. Show Less
LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
On August 15th, at the stroke of midnight in 1947, British rule comes to an end and India has gained her independence. Not all British soldiers have departed India in shame, though. Colonel Tusker Smalley and his wife, Lucy, have stayed on. It is now 1972 and the couple have started to fade in
A backdrop for Staying On is the tapestry of culture and caste. What it means to have wealth and status in a country on the verge of finding a new identity. The Smalleys and the Bhoolabhoys are no different in their hope for the future.
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money, health, vitality, and the real reason they decided to remain in the remote hill station of Pankot. Everything is in question now. Complicating matters is their antagonistic landlady, Mrs. Bhoolabhoy. Bhoolabhoy is determined to humiliate the British couple into leaving her country. After all these years her tactics are getting more and more hostile, forcing the English couple to renew their commitment to one another.A backdrop for Staying On is the tapestry of culture and caste. What it means to have wealth and status in a country on the verge of finding a new identity. The Smalleys and the Bhoolabhoys are no different in their hope for the future.
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Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9780099443193
Physical description
256 p.; 7.81 inches
Pages
256