Life in India; or, The English at Calcutta.
London: Henry Colburn, 1828. First edition. In 3 volumes. Contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards; spines gilt in compartments with green morocco title- and volume-labels. [2] 259 [1]; [2] 268; [2] 296, 2 pp. publisher’s advertisements. Contemporary ownership inscription to the front flyleaf of the first volume. Boards with some surface wear; joints lightly cracked but firm. Occasional foxing and light browning, a few leaves with old creases at upper corners from reading; overall a clean, crisp set in very good condition.
Early Anglo-Indian novel by Mary Frazer Campbell, one of the few women to depict British life in Calcutta from direct experience.
First edition of this scarce novel of Anglo-Indian life, written by Mary Frazer Campbell (1785–1843) under the pseudonym “Mrs. Monkland.” Born Mary Frazer of Fairfield, she married Alexander Campbell (1772–1821) in India, where she lived for years before returning to England. Her fiction draws on first-hand experience of British colonial society in early nineteenth-century Calcutta, making her one of the relatively few women writers to publish accounts of British India.
The novel follows a group of young women who sail for Bengal under the guardianship of Colonel Howard, charting their voyage out, first encounters with colonial society, and the romances, rivalries, and reversals that shape their lives. Amid scenes of domestic life, flirtations, and ambition, the story turns to loss and disillusion: battles, sudden bereavements, and the precarious position of women in India frame the novel’s conclusion.
The pseudonym “Mrs. Monkland” is recorded in Hayn’s Pseudonyms of Authors; the identification of the author as Mary Frazer Campbell (1785–1843) appears in later sources such as Sakala’s Women of South Asia. Life in India was followed by The Nabob’s Wife (1837) and The Nabob at Home (1842), both set in Britain but engaging with the figure of the “nabob” and the social consequences of colonial wealth. Taken together, these novels represent a small but significant contribution by a woman author to the broader literature on Anglo-Indian themes.
A valuable example of women’s authorship within the Anglo-Indian literary tradition, contemporary with more widely known male-authored works but far less often encountered.
Scarce on the market; the last copy traced in Rare Book Hub records was sold in 1982.
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Price: €3,000.00