War of No Pity ― The Indian Mutiny and Victorian Trauma

Herbert (humanities, Northwestern U.) traces the British Victorian cultural reaction to the events of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 (also known as the Sepoy Rebellion or, in India, the First War of Independence). Examining journalistic and historical accounts of the uprising, as well as a number of novels (including novels explicitly about the events in India and those that Herbert finds allegorical, such as Dickens's Tale of Two Cities), he finds the Indian Mutiny to represent a spot of disillusionment for Victorian culture, a psychological and spiritual wound that forced many Victorians to confront the fact that the imperial system stood at odds with their professed values and that "their national idealism and national self-esteem were self-deluding and morally corrupting." Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Christopher Herbert is the Chester D. Tripp Professor of the Humanities at Northwestern University. He is the author of three previous books, including Victorian Relativity: Radical Thought and Scientific Discovery.