Coralie Younger

A curious little book about women, a good many of whom, despite the subtitle, were not European, who married Indian princes, during the period of the Raj or thereafter. In some ways, it's the story of the princes that is more compelling, as we see these former proud rulers who are now deprived by the British of any real ability to rule, whose lives are controlled by outsiders. Often with vast wealth, but with nothing serious to do, they wander the world, and become intrigued by the demi-mondaine. For most of the women described here are not, by British standards, "ladies". That is not to suggest, of course, that there was not real love in many cases. And the difficulty of these women in adjusting not only to the multiple-wife households and religious differences that they encountered in their marriages, but their social rejection by their own compatriots, makes for interesting reading.… (mere)