A.E.W. Mason’s The Broken Road, first published in 1907, is a gripping romance of the frontier–considered the ‘real India’ by many British writers, and the preferred setting for Raj novels of romantic adventure. Through the relationship between its two main characters–Dick Linforth, scion of a family of empire-builders and Shere Ali, the prince of Chiltistan–it explores the sense of duty that drove successive generations of British men to sacrifice their lives for the goals of the empire, and the contentious issue of educating Indian princes in England. Of particular interest to the postcolonial reader is that The Broken Road, while undoubtedly reinscribing the image of a confident and secure empire characteristic of much Raj fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, also offers unusual insights into the human cost-on both sides of the racial divide–of producing that image. This new edition of The Broken Road, which includes a detailed introduction, a chronology of A.E.W. Mason’s life, maps, and extensive explanatory notes, will appeal to students and teachers of colonial and postcolonial literature, as well as general readers interested in Indian history.
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