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Literature of the 1857 Mutiny / 1857 Rebellion

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Here, we will give an overview of literature of the 1857 Rebellion, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny. The best known novel centrally about this event might be Flora Annie Steel, but the events of 1857 also show up in many other texts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The majority of 'explicit' Mutiny narratives are written by British writers and represent the British point of view, though there are narratives like Mirza Ghalib's Dastanbuy that represent the event from a South Asian point of view. Also, arguably a book like Anandamath by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee may be interpreted as an 1857 novel in disguise. (Anandamath was set in the 1770s, at the time of a famine in Bengal as well as the doomed Sanyasi Rebellion, though it is hard not to see the description of a rebellion against foreign rulers [both British and Mughal] as a proxy for rebellion against the British Raj in the 19th century.)

Mirza Ghalib, Dastanbuy (1858). This account by Ghalib, one of the great Urdu poets in the South Asian tradition, is somewhat oblique in its account of the events of 1857. Ghalib experienced these events first-hand as a resident of Delhi, and biographers suggest he supported the rebellion and Emperor Bahadur Shah during the summer months of 1857. However, it is thought this narrative was produced in part to show his innocence to the British once they regained control.

Flora Annie Steel, On the Face of the Waters (1896). A deeply-researched Mutiny narrative written by a prolific author who spent many years in India. Steel's novel is notable for its relative lack of racist stereotypes of Indians, its recognition of interracial romantic relationships, and engagement with with historical and geographical detail.

G.A. Henty, In Times of Peril (1883). A work of adventure fiction. Two boys who are the son of a British officer have adventures while the Mutiny is underway, with references to the events at Lucknow and Kanpur (Cawnpore).

G.A. Henty, Rujub The Juggler (1893). A work of historical adventure fiction. An Englishman who is afraid of gunfire works with a friendly, elderly Indian juggler to master his fears and rescue an Englishwoman being held by an evil Rajah who has been conspiring with the rebels.

Edward Ellis, Jungle Fugitives: A Tale of Life and Adventure in India, (1903). An adventure novel by an American writer, who did not, as far as we know, ever visit India. Protagonist is an American doctor resident in a rural location, with his daughter and his daughter's fiance. Features treks through the jungle, as well as conflict with a hostile band of Indians known in the novels as "Ghoojurs."

Edward Money, The Wife and the Ward (1859). (Republished later as A Woman's Fortitude: A Tale of the Cawnpore Tragedy). Thought to be the first work of "Mutiny" fiction, published just two years after the events of 1857. A novel about a love triangle involving a British soldier, his wife, and his war. They are under threat by an armed Indian force in the 1857 rebellion, and struggle to survive. See a 2022 article by Meghna Sapui on the topic. References events that transpired at Kanpur (Cawnpore).

George Tomkyns Chesney, The Dilemma, A Tale of the Mutiny (1876). A novel about a British soldier who fights in a remote British station in the Mutiny and is left disfigured, leading to disappointment in his romantic life. Available via HathiTrust

D.H. Thomas (aka R.E. Forrest), The Touchstone of Peril: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny (1887). Set at an indigo factory in a remote location in what is today Uttar Pradesh ("Upper Provinces" as it was known during the Raj era).

Frederick P. Gibbon, Disputed V.C: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny (1904). (In our corpus)

R.E. Forrest, Eight Days (1891).

Philip Meadows Taylor, Seeta (1872)

Robert Armitage Sterndale, The Afghan Knife (1879).

A.F.P. Harcourt, The Peril of the Sword (1903)

Patricia Wentworth, Red Year (1908)

J.N.H. MacLean, The Rane: A Legend of the Indian Mutiny (1887)

H.C. Irwin, With Sword and Pen: A Story of India in the Fifties (1903)

C.R. Fenn, Terrible Times (1899)

G. P. Raines, The Disputed V.C. (1903)

F.S. Brereton, Barclay of the Guides (1908)

Escott Lynn, A Hero of the Mutiny

Charles E. Pearce, Red Revenge (1911)

Texts that might not be as directly "about" the events of 1857, but that invoke it in some way:

Rudyard Kipling, "The Undertakers" (1895)
Rudyard Kipling, "The Lost Legion" (1891)
Rudyard Kipling, "The Mutiny of the Mavericks" (1891). Not about the 1857 events as such; deals with an Irish regiment stationed in Afghanistan that Mutinies against commanding officers.

Jules Verne, The Steam House
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four
Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone

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