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Hardcover Clive: The Life and Death of a British Emperor Book

ISBN: 0312265697

ISBN13: 9780312265694

Clive: The Life and Death of a British Emperor

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Format: Hardcover

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Book Overview

The real-life story of Robert Clive would be judged as wildly implausible if it came from the pen of a novelist.Clive of India was one of the most extraordinary and colorful figures Britain ever produced. The founder of Britain's Indian empire, he was also Britain's first great guerrilla fighter by the age of twenty-seven, conqueror of Bengal at thirty-one, and avenging angel of righteousness against the greed of his own fellow-countrymen at forty-one. In his later life Parliament brought him under painful scrutiny and he ended up one of the most hated men in Britain. He died violently under still-mysterious circumstances just before his fiftieth birthday.The story of Clive can be viewed on several levels: as a spirited military adventure by a man who defied death many times, who withstood the greatest siege in British military history, and conspired to force one of the most absolute and cruellest monarchs on earth off his throne; as the morality tale of a penniless young man who became the sole ruler of a huge empire, ended up as one of the richest men in Britain and was then brought to account and driven to despair; or as the story of a plundering early poacher-turned-gamekeeper who sought to establish a moral and legal order amidst slaughter and greed.Clive today lies buried in an unknown grave in an obscure corner of rural Shropshire, a reflection of the controversy he aroused in his lifetime and that still surrounds his legacy and the manner of his death. In this lively and revealing study Robert Harvey illuminates Clive's life's journey from the green fields surrounding Market Drayton through his adventures in India, his drive to success and self-destruction, to his vicious and premature death, by suicide or murder.

Customer Reviews

2 ratings

The life of Clive

It was the best material I have read on Clive, and it was a noble effort at parting the clouds of mystery that surround his life.

A Great Adventure

Having read this book when it was first released in Australia last year I must say I am glad to see that it has finally been released in the United States. This book grabbed me from the first page and held my interest to the very end. This is a great adventure story, told with panache and feeling. I was captivated throughout, reading about this great man's humble beginnings though to his campaigns in India where he made the British presence, clinging to a number of small trading posts, into an Empire and then his final demise. The reader is transported to the far-flung reaches within India where Clive carved out a name for himself against the French and Indian rulers as a man of ambition and ruthless military cunning. His campaigns and battles are told within an exciting narrative that just moved along relentlessly like Clive's Army moving across the plains of India. This is a great story, a masterful piece of historical writing presented by Robert Harvey and I am sure it will be enjoyed by all that love a good history book. I would compare this book very favourably to the likes of `Cochrane: Britannia's Last Sea Wolf' by Donald Thomas. In fact I noticed that Robert Harvey also has a book on the market titled `Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain' which I have taken the liberty in ordering after his outstanding effort in telling the story of `Clive of India'.
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