• The Far Pavilions

  • By: M. M. Kaye
  • Narrated by: Vikas Adam
  • Length: 48 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,670 ratings)

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The Far Pavilions  By  cover art

The Far Pavilions

By: M. M. Kaye
Narrated by: Vikas Adam
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Publisher's summary

When The Far Pavilions was first published 19 years ago, it moved the critic Edmund Fuller to write this: "Were Miss Kaye to produce no other book, The Far Pavilions might stand as a lasting accomplishment in a single work comparable to Margaret Mitchell's achievement in Gond With the Wind." From its beginning in the foothills of the towering Himalayas, M. M. Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich, and vibrant tapestry of love and war that ranks with the greatest panoramic sagas of modern fiction.

The Far Pavilions is itself a Himalayan achievement, a book we hate to see come to an end. it is a passionate, triumphant story that excites us, fills us with joy, move us to tears, satisfies us deeply, and helps us remember just what it is we want most from a novel.

©1978 M.M. Kaye (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Far Pavilions

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Heroism, adventure, sadistic cruelty, and love.

Any additional comments?

This book is altogether, a gripping adventure, and a story about conflicting personal identity. I first read this book over twenty years ago and remembered it as one of my all time favorites. I was shocked to discover no reviews had been written for this wonderful novel. If you decide to listen to this book you will not disappointed. The descriptions of India are breath-taking and rival the tales of that country written by Bryce Courtenay. Surprisingly, listening to the audio version was better than reading it. The Indian accents used in the narration made it utterly enjoyable. It is the story of an English boy born to a father who studies the people and dialects found in the foothills of the Himalayas. He becomes orphaned during a cholera outbreak around age 4 and has only an Indian nurse to aid him in his survival. It is a huge book but worth every page and not difficult to get through. The Far Pavilions is simply one of the best epic novels ever written. There is a ghastly description of the practice of Suttee; the burning alive of high born Hindu women on their husband's funeral pyre. But it is not too descriptive and gives a fascinating glimpse into the practice of Suttee. If you like tales of heroism, adventure, cruelty, survival, and love, you will not be disappointed.

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132 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed every second of this 49 hour listen

I read this once, long ago, and remembered loving it. I keep an eye out for M. M. Kaye on audible and was really excited to see this become available. I was worried that I had built the novel up in my head and wouldn't enjoy it as much the second time around, but my fears were completely unfounded. Gripping, well-written main story, interesting time period as a backdrop and great narration. You won't be sorry.

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53 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very entertaining read!

I had seen this book in a Showtime mini-series portrayal back in 1984. It's offered now on Netflix, and I revisited it again after purchasing the audible book. It is a great story, either way, and I can't say that one was better than the other.

As it is in many book-to-movie transitions, some key elements are left out and the timeline is altered. The book was lovely, just lovely until the rescue of Anjuli from the suttee ritual. The storyline is so much more fleshed out, and I was just swept away to 1860s India. The narrator had much to do with this. His wonderful Indian accent was seamless and so real. He even spoke the women's parts so believably. Charming all the way through.

However, I did find the book rather tedious after the rescue. It seemed to drag on. I think that the mini-series did a better job incorporating all the Afghanistan fighting before the rescue. I have to admit I played it at 2x speed a couple of times, because I really wanted to know what happened, I just didn't want to experience every bloody blow in real time. I will read it again in the future, because the narration was so good, the forbidden romance was so good, and Ash's back story, which was quite skimmed over in the mini-series, was very interesting.

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36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Easily the best audiobook I've ever listened to!

What made the experience of listening to The Far Pavilions the most enjoyable?

The narrator! I'm in love! He can do thrilling, scary, tender, political, introspective or descriptive scenes and make you feel you're there--in the scene and in the character's mind. His accents are great and he does both male and female voices well.

The book! I'm in love with the book, too! It has everything--adventure, intrigue, romance, philosophy, character. I particularly like novels that contain truth and beauty in addition to a well-told story. This novel is about the need of humankind for unity instead of prejudice, and it winds it's way to that truth in beautiful descriptions as well as a gripping storyline. Only once or twice did I guess what was going to happen next; mostly I was surprised, which I liked.

What did you like best about this story?

The value placed on characters with moral virtue.

Have you listened to any of Vikas Adam’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but now I will! Please ask him to narrate A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry--he would be perfect!

Any additional comments?

49 hours was not long enough for this book. I would have been happy if it went on for another 49. I'm so sad that it ended, but so glad that I listened to it.

As with other listeners, the long battle scenes at the end were not my favorite part of the book, but they were still good. They kept my interest, in fact, better than the long battle scenes near the end of War and Peace (which I read years ago and have not yet listened to). I was a little surprised that a female author wrote such involved battle scenes, in fact, but maybe that's why I found them a bit more palatable than I find battle scenes in general.

Overall, this book is beautiful, wise, and occasionally funny. It is also much like real life in the sense that it shows people picking their way through the entanglements of their relationships and society, making good choices and bad ones since they cannot see into the future, and taking the consequences of all their choices. It demonstrates the importance of integrity, honesty, compassion and tolerance. Thankfully we don't all have to brave danger and intrigue at every turn like the characters in this book (we do, but not at the life-and-death level), but we do all have to suffer through our tests in life and come out the other end with wisdom and compassion instead of bitterness and selfishness, so in that sense the story mirrored reality and was uplifting at the same time.

Maybe I should study archetypes a little more because I noticed that Ashok/Ashton was very much like Harry Potter in that his impulsivity gets him into trouble but his good character gets him out again, and Anjuli is much like Dorothea in Middlemarch in that her tolerance, patience and kindness get her into trouble because they carry naiveté with them, but as she continues to think about what she sees, she becomes wise enough to make better decisions for herself. I wonder if there are more such characters out there in the literary world because they're in all of us. Just a thought...

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33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Read

I read this book years ago when if first came out and liked it then. Rereading, listening to it on Audible, prompted me to pick the book up again as well.

I have recomended this book to a number of people who have no knowledge of "The Great Game" and it's relevance to the events of the last ten years in the former Raj.

The story is one third romance, one third adventure, and one third serious history of the Second Afgan War. I have read quotes from a number of British officers from that war that sound like they could have been made today.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

THIS IS NO ORDINARY NOVEL!!

What made the experience of listening to The Far Pavilions the most enjoyable?

If there could be a perfect novel, or book, than this is it. Everything you have ever wanted in a story is written on over 900 pages and it brought tears to my eyes to see it finally offered on Audible.
I have read this novel many times and everything else by M.M. Kaye, it is like finding a long lost friend and though I haven`t even listened to this program yet, I already know that it will be the best 48 hours of my reading history.
This is an epic story that covers ever emotion known to man, transporting you to far away places and lingers on your mind long after it ends.......

What other book might you compare The Far Pavilions to and why?

Shantaram

Have you listened to any of Vikas Adam’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not yet

Who was the most memorable character of The Far Pavilions and why?

Ashton

Any additional comments?

I wish there were a zillion more M. M. Kaye novels hidden somewhere and we just found them. I can dream!!

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Romantic Epic

This is a HUGE book - at 80 hrs long its a commitment but for your money its excellent value as there are not just one story but many stories all of them well written and reasonably well told by Vikas Adam (although his british accent was woeful). There were slightly dull passages, there were incredibly exciting passages and there were boring bits that connected the stories.

M M Kaye published this as just the one massive book but in reality it could easily have been 4 big books. I think it would have been a better tale if it had been 4 books as the dull passages would have had to be more interesting to keep the reader reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and the final story of the Second Afghan war and the mission to Kabul was wonderfully written and terribly exciting - as a piece of descriptive writing it was amongst the best I heard. Sadly the end was predictable, soppy and very abrupt and it left me feeling disappointed that the ends weren't more appropriately tied off.

I'd recommend this book to those interested in life in the British Raj of 1870s, romantics who are looking for more than a bodice ripper and those who enjoy a long tale with lots of characters.

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A truly sweeping epic, flawed but worthwhile

It took nearly 5 months, but I have finally finished this epic tale of star-crossed lovers searching for a place to belong, set amid the political intrigues, cruelties and hubris of the British Raj. At almost 49 hours, it's by far the longest audiobook I've yet tackled. Narrator Vikas Adam was an expert guide, and much of the story had me utterly captivated. But this novel had a couple of glaring flaws that kept me from giving it 5 stars (although, in the end, it did seem to add up to more than the sum of its parts).

I will leave a detailed recounting of the plot to other reviewers. At the heart of the story is the struggle of Ashton Pelham Martin, born British but raised Indian, to reconcile the two halves of himself. His beloved, Anjuli, gives the book its soul. A neglected Indian princess, she too is "half caste," valued solely for the emotional support she gives her spoiled, volatile younger sister, Shushila. The same intolerance and prejudice that makes both Ash and Juli outcasts in their own country, places seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the path of their love.

The story managed to have both a breathtaking scope - sweeping from the Himalayas to the parched deserts of India and back again to the Hindu Kush - and a remarkable intimacy, revealing the private inner lives of a huge cast of characters. The novel highlighted how people find both comfort and frustration in cultural customs and traditions. They give human beings a place to belong while simultaneously limiting and stifling them.

Despite all of the other compelling characters, Ash and Juli's saga was so central to the book's emotional core that the story lost its way when its focus shifted to the Second Afghan War and the ill-fated British mission to Kabul. Try as I might, I was not as engrossed in the fate of Lt. Walter Hamilton, Ash's best friend, especially as both Ash and Juli were relegated to the role of bystanders. The final quarter of the book dragged, taking me a few weeks to finish. I wish M.M. Kaye had used that section as the basis for a second book, rather than trying to shoehorn it into Ash and Juli's story.

The key figures in the siege against the British mission were based on real people. Therefore, the story seemed unnecessarily padded in this final section, as if Kaye were just marking time to arrive at the major historical events. Throughout the book, she also showed a weakness for heavy-handed foreshadowing, to the point I could predict major plot twists long before they happened. In the final quarter, she beat the reader over the head with it, until I was almost relieved to finally reach the end (where I felt Ash and Juli's story was wrapped up too hastily).

However, the book's many strengths made it compelling and worthwhile, and I'll probably listen to or read the story again someday. Vikas Adam was an extraordinary narrator, giving consistent, distinctive voices to all of the characters. I especially loved how he used different accents for Ash, depending on whether he was thinking or speaking in English or in an Indian dialect.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

For Patient Listeners

Yay and nay, therefore 3 stars in my rating , despite raving reviews this book has received.

The interesting pieces are captivating and intriquing, giving a background of Indian history during the time of the British Raj, and of traditional Hindu customs with particular emphasis on the caste system, and the custom of suttee - the wife following the husband to his funeral pyre.

I love long books, provided my attention is held for the duration. But my attention wanders over what seem like endless stretches of descriptive narrative. When the guy sits in the grass all night listening for the sound of an enemy's footsteps, describing each painful hour. Or the landscape is endlessly described. Then I realise I stopped listening way back, rewind, only to find that I missed nothing of any relevance. Frankly, I run out of patience.

I also love books with an Indian flavour. But this is too much. Too much India, too much cavalry, too much dying of people I've lost track of and don't really care about.
By comparison, another book with an Indian background is "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese, narrated BySartaj Garewal, which deserved 5+ stars, in my opinion.

Vikas Adam has done an admirable job in narrating The Far Pavilions, with only a few minor glitches in accent and emphasis.



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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Swept Away again and again

If you could sum up The Far Pavilions in three words, what would they be?

Ultimate love story

What other book might you compare The Far Pavilions to and why?

The Princess Bride, love against impossible odds.

Which character – as performed by Vikas Adam – was your favorite?

Ashton

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

LoL...if I could stay awake that long

Any additional comments?

You will fall in love with the rich description of India. You will see it through the eyes of Ashton Martin and the hills and palaces will be almost real. You will watch a character develope into a man, fall in love and fight almost impossible odds. The wars, caste system, bravery, and loyalty make it an adventurous read. Ashton and Anjulie's love make it unforgettable. It is to this day my favorite book, and I've read a lot of books.

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13 people found this helpful