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  • Return of a King

  • The Battle for Afghanistan
  • By: William Dalrymple
  • Narrated by: Sagar Arya
  • Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (99 ratings)

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Return of a King cover art

Return of a King

By: William Dalrymple
Narrated by: Sagar Arya
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Summary

Bloomsbury presents Return of a King by William Dalrymple, read by Sagar Arya.

Shortlisted for The Samuel Johnson Prize 2013

In the spring of 1839, Britain invaded Afghanistan for the first time. Nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the high mountain passes and re-established on the throne Shah Shuja ul-Mulk.

On the way in, the British faced little resistance. But after two years of occupation, the Afghan people rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into violent rebellion. The First Anglo-Afghan War ended in Britain's greatest military humiliation of the 19th century: an entire army of the then most powerful nation in the world ambushed in retreat and utterly routed by poorly equipped tribesmen.

Using a range of forgotten Afghan and Indian sources, William Dalrymple's masterful retelling of Britain's greatest imperial disaster is a powerful parable of colonial ambition and cultural collision, folly and hubris. Return of a King is history at its most urgent and important.

©2013 William Dalrymple (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"This sorry saga has been recounted many times, but never that I can recall as well as by Dalrymple. He is a master story-teller, whose special gift lies in the use of indigenous sources, so often neglected by imperial chroniclers." (Max Hastings, Sunday Times)

"Enchantingly written.... In Dalrymple’s usual happy style of historical narrative, applied to a fascinating, neat and highly suggestive series of events, this long and involved book will be a great success, and bring the famous story to a large new audience." (Philip Hensher, Spectator)

"Of the books swooped into being by his scholarship (to which he himself has applied the adjective 'obsessive'), this one is the most magnificent.... His account is so perceptive and so warmly humane that one is never tempted to break away.... This book would be compulsive reading even if it were not a uniquely valuable history, which it is, because Dalrymple has uncovered sources never used before." (Diana Athill, Guardian)

What listeners say about Return of a King

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    4 out of 5 stars

An excellent read!

An excellent book! Worth a read. The author has based the work on lots of research and evidence. And he lays this down in a very readable an flowing style.

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Thorough and still entertaining

The book goes into very detailed analysis of historical events based on actual recorded historcal correpondence... I found the parts about Ramjith Singh and Kohinoor to be adding even more depth to the story. recommended!

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Amazing, must listen!

Must read, it takes you there and stays with you once you finished reading it!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating detailed history

I had not much idea about the history of Afghanistan - just vague ideas of counties trying to influence it. I hadn’t realised how bloody it was, and how shameful the involvement of certain countries. I learnt a lot!

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    5 out of 5 stars

History repeats itself

This phrase ifs often challenged by academics but this wonderful book shows that in the case of Afghanistan it seems sadly true. What a pity that politicians in Britain and the USA had not read it before they ordered invasion.. So many lives could have been saved. Would the world today be a safer place? An excellent book and so well read.

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  • 12-04-24

Wow so much I didn’t know

Really well researched book about a period in history which probably isn’t well known certainly in the west. Seems there is a degree of history repeating itself

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excellent book

really good account of the war, I really enjoyed it a lot. another great book from dalrymple

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A window to the past which also serves as a mirror for the present

The way the book is written just draws the reader in and of course the narration is flawless with perfect representation of emotion and tones.

After reading the Anarchy this showed a stark contrast to the “successes” of the company in India compared to the humiliation in Afghanistan.

As they say “History repeats itself”.

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What an amazing story- told from both sides due to incredible research.

A torrid episode in British history.
The research of diaries, letters and documents from London to Kabul and Moscow makes this more complete than was possible immediately after the war, and given the changed situation in Kabul, even now.
I knew the basic story beforehand, but this story of colonial madness was grimly gripping.
Told brilliantly by the warm voiced narrator- especially the way he pronounced the names and places it’s as if you were in Asia sitting around a camp fire with an elder of the village relaying the tale. Which as the author discovered- the Afghans still do.

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Excellent and Well Researched

For anyone interested in early 19th Century history, the history of the Great Game, history of Afghanistan or the British in India this is a must have. Well researched & an excellent story in which the author went to extreme lengths to understand the history & appreciate Afghani society & culture. I recommend this book.

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5 people found this helpful