COROMANDEL!

by John Masters ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 25, 1955

Chronologically, this comes first in the series of novels of India in which the name of Savage is integral to the plot. Here, in the story of Jason Savage, Masters goes back to the 1620's, whom myth and legend, visions and aspirations are strangely merged with the turmoil of adventure and romance. Jason was an unlettered youth on the feudal estate of the Pennels. He thought to wed with a girl of his class, but too readily forgot her in the dreams of night in fields and woods. Accused and punished for poaching he had not done, he won attention from a knight's daughter- but violence and murder brought that to an end, with escape the only answer. But in his escape he took with him a map, dearly purchased, purporting to show the whereabouts of treasure of the Indies. A berth on a ship bound to the East -- a chance to pose as an ambassador through misunderstanding on the art of the credulous native ruler who sought freedom with England's aid from the suzerainty of Portugal -- a tangled web of romance with a girl pledged to an Indian god, and the unwanted devotion of a half blind girl, all combined to give Jason a charmed life in the midst of superstition, violence and faith. Jason and the girl who loves him, with Ishmael, a scholar in search of the truth, go through forests and jungles, wastelands and icy heights- seeking, but never finding- the treasure. And at the close, when the Tibetans of a sacred monastery hope to find in Jason their Lama, Jason knows that the treasure he has found is content....A strange and difficult book, with an aura of symbolism, mysticism and eroticism- this is still another India than the one Masters has chosen to previously reveal.

Pub Date: March 25, 1955

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1955

Categories: FICTION