On the Face of the Waters: A Tale of the Mutiny (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. A Victorian Historical Novel of the 1857 Indian Rebellion, Delhi Siege, and Colonial ConflictBy Flora Annie Webster Steel
Length17h 43m
About this audiobook
Set amid the upheaval of the 1857 Indian Rebellion, On the Face of the Waters is a densely textured historical novel that follows Anglo-Indian and Indian lives through the siege and recapture of Delhi. Steel combines melodramatic romance, documentary realism, and panoramic social observation, placing private suffering against imperial crisis. Her prose is expansive and meticulously detailed, reflecting the late-Victorian historical novel's ambition to interpret history through domestic, political, and cultural entanglements. Flora Annie Webster Steel knew colonial India intimately. Having lived there for more than two decades as the wife of a civil servant, she studied languages, household customs, education, folklore, and women's lives with unusual attentiveness for her time. That experience informs the novel's crowded social world, even as its assumptions remain shaped by imperial ideology. Her familiarity with Indian settings and colonial anxieties gives the book both ethnographic richness and historical tension. This novel is recommended to readers interested in Victorian fiction, colonial history, and literary representations of 1857. It rewards patient reading with its breadth, atmosphere, and complex negotiation of gender, race, loyalty, and power. Though modern readers should approach its imperial perspectives critically, it remains a significant Anglo-Indian work and an illuminating example of how empire was imagined in late-nineteenth-century fiction.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.
- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★ 3.2 (53)
Includes Goodreads
GenreHistorical Fiction, Action and Adventure
Length17 hrs 43 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 23, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1On the Face of the Waters: A Tale of the Mutiny (Annotated)
26IN THE VILLAGE.
2ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS.
27CHAPTER V.
3BOOK I.
28IN THE RESIDENCY.
4THISTLEDOWN AND GOSSAMER .
29CHAPTER VI.
5CHAPTER I.
30THE YELLOW FAKIR.
Show all chaptersShow less
6GOING! GOING! GONE!
31CHAPTER VII.
7CHAPTER II.
32THE WORD WENT FORTH.
8HOME, SWEET HOME?
33BOOK III.
9CHAPTER III.
34FROM DUSK TO DAWN.
10THE GREAT GULF FIXED.
35CHAPTER I.
11CHAPTER IV.
36NIGHT.
12TAPE AND SEALING-WAX.
37CHAPTER II.
13CHAPTER V.
38DAWN.
14BRAVO!
39CHAPTER III.
15CHAPTER VI.
40DAYLIGHT.
16THE GIFT OF MANY FACES.
41CHAPTER IV.
17BOOK II.
42NOON.
18THE BLOWING OF THE BUBBLE.
43CHAPTER V.
19CHAPTER I.
44SUNSET.
20IN THE PALACE.
45CHAPTER VI.
21CHAPTER II.
46DUSK.
22IN THE CITY.
47BOOK IV.
23CHAPTER III.
48"SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE OF."
24ON THE RIDGE.
49CHAPTER I.
25CHAPTER IV.
50THE DEATH PLEDGE.
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