Rebel Queen

by Michelle Moran

  10. “We stood around the breach in the wall, weapons readied, listening to the sound of birds calling to one another. It didn’t matter to them whether we slaughtered one another, or even who won. Tomorrow, they would be signing even if all of us were floating in the Ganges.” Consider this quote as a commentary on the nature of war. Does Sita, the narrator of the novel, believe there is ever a winner in war? In this case, who won and who lost, and at what expense?

  11. Sita writes, “the enemy had come from within, not without.” How does loss, interior and exterior, function as a possible theme in Rebel Queen? Do Kahini’s actions weaken the rani’s kingdom enough to make it susceptible to the British? Do you think that there is always an interior enemy who opens the door, so to speak, for the outside one? Consider Sita’s own family as an example.

  12. Do you agree with Sita’s decision to leave her pregnant sister behind and rejoin the rani? What does this decision reveal about Sita? Would you have made the same decision in her place? Is it possible to forgive oneself for the misfortunes of those we love?

  A Conversation with Michelle Moran

  Rebel Queen is full of references to canonical works of literature. Like Sita, are you most inspired by William Shakespeare? Who would you name as your top five favorite authors?

  Without a doubt I am inspired by Shakespeare, and he is definitely among my top five favorite authors, along with Janet Fitch, J. R. R. Tolkien, Douglas Preston, and Erik Larson. I was extremely fortunate to be able to study Shakespeare with a brilliant professor, Martha Andresen, who is now retired. She was phenomenal, and the way she brought Shakespeare’s plays to life made you realize Shakespeare truly wasn’t of an age but for all time (as his contemporary, Ben Jonson, said). There’s a wonderful book by Harold Bloom called Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, and he sums up better than I ever could what makes the Bard so unique among authors. Perhaps this is why Shakespeare is read in every part of the globe, including India.

  This novel, much like your international bestseller Nefertiti, recounts a story based on the real life of a long-dead queen from antiquity. What draws you to characters like Rani Lakshmi and Nefertiti?

  The characters from history that jump out at me are often women who managed to carve powerful roles for themselves in societies where women weren’t typically allowed positions of power or authority. They are also the ones who have lived through some sort of revolution and managed to weather it. Revolution is fascinating to me, whether it’s cultural, religious, or political. In Rebel Queen, the people of India are growing tired of England’s physical and political encroachment on their land. As they begin to voice their displeasure, however, England responds by tightening its grip, and once the people of India take up arms, England sees it as a revolution and acts accordingly, sending in an army to suppress what they see as a “rebellion.” Whenever a rebellion or revolution occurs in a society, new leaders emerge who are often tremendously charismatic or in some other way very interesting. In this case, one of those leaders was Rani Lakshmi.

  Why did you decide to tell this story from Sita’s point of view? Is she your favorite character? If not, who is your favorite?

  I was drawn to Sita because her position in society was so unique. Here was a woman raised in purdah (where women are veiled and confined to their houses) who became a part of the queen’s Durga Dal, an elite fighting force made entirely of women. What must that have been like? Women at that time were raised to believe that their place in society was at home—that to step outside the home was dangerous not only to their physical well-being, but to their moral and spiritual well-being, too. How would a woman like that feel if she suddenly shed her veil and stepped outside? Would she adapt, or would she flee back to what was familiar to her? I wanted to explore all of these emotions, and I couldn’t have done that with any other character but Sita, who is definitely my favorite, yes.

  In your author’s note you mention you had to make a few changes to the story “in order to make nineteenth-century India more accessible.” How do you decide what should be changed and what must be preserved in historical fiction? Is it a fine line for you?

  There is a fine line, but as a historical author you are always going to get mail questioning your judgment call on such things. For me, though, it’s not a terribly difficult choice. If names have changed over time, I go with what people are most familiar with today. If something in a character’s past is uncertain, I have no problem filling in the gaps, as long as the guesswork is plausible. If readers want a biography on Rani Lakshmi, plenty exist. But writing historical fiction means making history accessible to a wide audience.

  Along similar lines, what was the research process like for Rebel Queen?

  With each of my novels, the research always begins in the country where the novel takes place. In this case, it was India. Because I married an Indian man, the research for this novel was considerably easier than it would have been without someone to translate Hindi documents for me or take me on a tour of various sites within India. As with each novel, the research involved a lot of traveling and reading, which for me is one of the best parts about writing historical fiction.

  Do you agree that loss is a major theme in Rebel Queen—both personal and shared loss? When you write, do you consciously choose themes or do they arise organically from the writing?

  Loss is definitely a major theme in the book—the experience of it, why it happens, and finally, coming to terms with it. I don’t consciously choose the themes. I think each character I write about has events in her life that are so often repeated that they create a theme. Unfortunately for Sita, those events involved loss—of her kingdom, her family, and life as she knew it in Jhansi. But I also think Rebel Queen is a story of hope. That even in the most trying times, people survive; love survives.

  Do you think that Sita comes to terms with her losses at the end of the novel?

  I think she comes to accept them, yes. There is something cathartic in the retelling of a traumatic story, and I believe this is what she is doing by sending her memoirs to England, particularly since England was the source of so many of her life’s troubles. There is an oft-quoted saying that while a person might never get over trauma they can certainly move past it. I think this is what she does.

  Would you characterize this novel as pre-colonial? What larger conversation about the nature of colonization do you hope to join? Is it important to you to show alterative points of view regarding this topic?

  Yes, I would definitely consider it a pre-colonial novel, since England didn’t actually take over India until after Rani Lakshmi’s death. I think many people, myself included, hear the word colonization and immediately think of Africa. It wasn’t until I was married in India and began touring some of India’s historic sites that I began to think about England’s presence there and what life must have been like under British rule.

  Is Rebel Queen a book that suggests gender roles might be fluid rather than static? What characters do you think push the gender envelope furthest in this story?

  There is no doubt in my mind that gender roles are fluid. Historically, it seems very clear that Raja Gangadhar was more attracted to men than women. English soldiers who were in Jhansi at the time and Vishnubhat Godse, a Marathi writer who witnessed Jhansi’s fall, remarked on this, even talking about Gangadhar’s desire to play women’s roles on the stage and his liking for women’s dress.

  The Boston Globe has said that your “artful storytelling skills bring(s) . . . to vivid life . . . ancient history.” Do you feel called to certain time periods or characters from history? How do you choose the setting for your novels?

  Actually, I don’t feel called to certain periods in history. But I do feel called by certain stories, whether they’re set in Egypt, or Rome, or India. So far in my career, each of the books I’ve written have been inspired by various trips I’ve taken. In the case of
Nefertiti, it was an archaeological dig in Israel, followed by a trip to Egypt. In the case of Cleopatra’s Daughter, it was a trip to Rome. And in the case of Rebel Queen, it was my marriage and subsequent tour of India.

  What news can you share with us about upcoming projects? Do you have plans for a new novel?

  I do, although unlike my previous novels, this one was inspired by something more personal. The Typist is set in Paris during the Second World War and tells the story of a young woman, Edie Boutin, who’s taken from her university class at the Sorbonne and, along with a dozen other women, is told by the French police that she is to type the list of Jews who will be rounded up and deported from France. There is no refusing the police, and this act sets off a chain of events that change not only Edie’s life, but also the lives of one particular Jewish family whose address she accidentally adds to the list.

  The idea for the book came to me after my son was born. Because I love the field of archaeogenetics, one of the first things my husband and I did was to order an ancestry test for him. We used the company 23andMe, and what came back not only for him, but also for me, was very surprising. It turns out that I am Jewish, and not just a little. A significant portion of my DNA showed Ashkenazi Jew. We’d never talked about this in my family. It wasn’t a secret, but it wasn’t a topic of discussion either, and no one could tell me how a Jewish boy from Germany ended up marrying a German Catholic, or why they’d chosen to raise their daughter a Catholic instead of a Jew. It started me down a path that eventually led to the Holocaust, and sadly, the concentration camps as well. At the same time that I was discovering this family history, I took a trip to Paris, and it was while I was there that I began to realize just how complicated and controversial the German takeover of Paris had been. I started visiting the sites in Paris where the Jews once lived, and where they were held prior to being deported to various concentration camps across Europe. When my trip was over, I knew it would be the basis for my next novel.

  Enhance Your Book Club

  1. For Sita’s father, reading the classics opened up the world to him, “a world in which he’d never know the sound of his child’s voice or hear his wife sing ragas to Lord Shiva again.” And for Sita, a woman made to observe purdah, literature had the power to take her beyond the four walls of her own home. Have your book club revisit some classic literature beloved by Sita and her father, such as Shakespeare’s Othello or The Merchant of Venice, or look for productions of these plays at your local theater. Try to imagine yourselves confined to only your home as you read or watch the play. Afterward, discuss the ways in which these texts have the ability to transform both you and the world. What lessons do these classic plays teach us that can be directly applied to our lives? To Sita’s? What is it about Shakespeare’s language that makes him sound so fresh all these years later?

  2. The rani’s Dewan compares Sita to the Indian painter Nihâl Chand’s ideal woman: “pale cheeks, sensuous lips, a high forehead, thin brows, and wide lotus-blossom eyes.” With your book club, study a few paintings by Chand, paying particular attention to his version of ideal beauty (the painting can be found here: www.exoticindiaart.com/product/paintings/bani-thani-portrait-of-lady-who-is-model-of-beauty-HL96/). After enjoying the artwork, have a conversation with your book club about the nature of beauty. What do you notice about the paintings? What words would you use to describe the women portrayed? Why do you think Sita says that to be compared to Chand’s Bani Thani is “as much a compliment as an insult”? Is Sita’s beauty a help or a hindrance to her? Consider how being beautiful affects the other characters in the novel. If you had to choose to be skilled or beautiful, which would you choose and why? Do you think Sita would choose her skills over her beauty?

  3. Before the British formally took over the kingdom of Jhansi there was health and happiness in the rani’s palace—and a lot of food. Sita lovingly describes one meal “of steaming rice, curries made with green chilies and coriander, and vegetables cooked in heavy sauces.” Have a dinner party with your book club in which you recreate this menu. Over dinner, discuss the many examples of loss that occur in Rebel Queen. Is it difficult for the characters to mourn personal losses in the midst of public loss? Have you ever been in a similar situation? Share with the group your own story of loss.

  About the Author

  © AMIT KUSHWAHA

  Michelle Moran was born in Southern California. After attending Pomona College, she earned a master’s degree from Claremont Graduate University. During her six years as a public high school teacher, Moran used her summers to travel around the world, and it was her experiences as a volunteer on archaeological digs that inspired her to write historical fiction. She is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Nefertiti, The Heretic Queen, Cleopatra’s Daughter, Madame Tussaud, and The Second Empress, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. Visit her online at MichelleMoran.com.

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  ALSO BY MICHELLE MORAN

  The Second Empress

  Madame Tussaud

  Cleopatra’s Daughter

  The Heretic Queen

  Nefertiti

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by Michelle Moran

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Touchstone hardcover edition March 2015

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  Interior design by Akasha Archer

  Jacket design by Cherlynne Li

  Jacket photograph © Mimi Haddon/Stone/Getty Images, border © Shutterstock

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Moran, Michelle.

  Rebel queen: a novel / Michelle Moran. —First Touchstone hardcover edition.

  pages; cm Touchstone fiction original hardcover.

  1. Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi, 1828–1858—Fiction. 2. Jhansi (India: District)—History—19th century—Fiction. 3. India—History—British occupation, 1765–1947—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3613.O682R43 2015

  813'.6—dc23

  2014026037

  ISBN 978-1-4767-1635-0

  ISBN 978-1-4767-1637-4 (ebook)

  Contents

  * * *

  Author’s Note

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapt
er Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Epilogue

  Historical Note

  Glossary

  Acknowledgments

  Reading Group Guide

  About the Author