cover image THE MAHARAJAH'S BOX: An Exotic Tale of Espionage, Intrigue, and Illicit Love in the Days of the Raj

THE MAHARAJAH'S BOX: An Exotic Tale of Espionage, Intrigue, and Illicit Love in the Days of the Raj

Christy Campbell, . . Overlook, $29.95 (474pp) ISBN 978-1-58567-293-6

On the list of unclaimed bank accounts the Swiss Bankers Association published in 1997, one leapt out at British journalist Campbell. It belonged to an Indian princess, the deceased daughter of Maharajah Duleep Singh, the last king of the Punjab, spiritual home of the Sikhs. When the British Empire annexed the territory in 1849, Singh, a small child then, was forced to turn over his wealth (including the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond) and his kingdom. Brought to England, he converted to Christianity, charmed Queen Victoria (she later became godmother to Singh's son) and led the life of an English country gentleman. In middle age, however, spurred by a prophecy, he sought to reclaim his throne. He abandoned his family and set off on an ill-fated mission to overthrow the British government in India, cultivating along the way an international conspiracy whose players ran the gamut from Irish revolutionaries to Russian ultranationalists. While the depth of research devoted to Singh's troubled life is commendable, Campbell includes so much archival material that he further confuses what is already a complex and murky tale, and sometimes buries the maharajah beneath the load of information. Occasional authorial intrusions and Campbell's failure to distinguish among the numerous foreign personalities further blur the narrative. While Singh's rebellious legend persists today in certain quarters, in the end, Campbell fails to make the reader truly care about this sad and rather obscure historical figure. 37 b&w photos. (July)

Forecast:The elegant sepia-toned cover and the racy subtitle will draw in the casual browser, though both are slightly misleading: the cover features Singh's daughter, Princess Catherine, who hardly appears in the tale, and the latter owes more to marketing strategy than it does to accurate description.