Stories by English Authors: The Orient (Selected by Scribners)

In Short

Gathering nineteenth-century short fiction set across Asia and the Pacific, this anthology charts European encounters with Eastern cultures. Outcasts scheme to conquer remote mountain tribes, Chinese scholars navigate disguise and trickery, and women in isolated outposts confront the stark limits of duty and romantic devotion. Each tale weighs British colonial ambition, local custom, and personal tragedy, revealing the physical and moral peril that awaits when outsiders attempt to possess or assimilate into a world they never truly comprehend.

The Story

Across these tales, Western travelers and Eastern denizens cross geographical and social boundaries, only to find their ambitions upended by isolation and cultural divide. In India, two British vagabonds, Peachey Carnehan and Daniel Dravot, decide that the subcontinent is too small for their grand talents. They journey through Afghanistan into remote Kafiristan disguised as native priests. Armed with rifles and sheer bravado, they conquer local tribes, and Dravot is crowned king as a supposed deity. Yet Dravot’s hubris leads to his undoing. Demanding a native bride despite Carnehan's warnings, he reveals his mortality when the terrified girl bites him, drawing human blood. The enraged priests crucify Carnehan and force Dravot to step off a rope bridge to his death. Carnehan survives, returning to a narrator in India as a broken, crippled beggar bearing Dravot’s withered, crowned head before departing into obscurity.

In China, a spirited woman named Jasmine disguises herself as a male scholar to help her father and pursue her studies. Navigating romantic entanglements with her fellow scholar Tu and the persistent Wei—who believes Jasmine is merely a brother acting as a matchmaker for an imaginary sister—Jasmine travels toward Peking. Along the way, her charm inadvertently wins the heart of a wealthy lady at an inn. Relying on trickery to escape binding commitments, Jasmine eventually reaches her destination, reveals her true identity to her relieved father, and secures a happy match with Tu, leaving the exasperated Wei to accept the hand of the wealthy inn heiress.

Meanwhile, on a remote New Zealand estate, a dying Maori woman who married a European man begs that her children remain strictly English, haunted by the fear that her mixed-race offspring will revert to indigenous ways and bring shame upon their father. In the scorched plains of India, Kathleen Drayton resides in a suffocating tented camp with her coarse, well-meaning husband John. When Broomhurst, an intellectual associate from her past, arrives, romantic tension flares against the barren landscape. The sudden death of her husband leaves Kathleen consumed by guilt. When Broomhurst presses her to marry him, she refuses, realizing that her passion for him has burned out and that achieving one's desires after the desire itself has died is the cruelest outcome of all.

How It Unfolds

The pact is forged Two ambitious British loafers meet an Indian newspaperman on a train, revealing their scheme to trek through treacherous Afghan passes and conquer Kafiristan as self-made kings.

A crown is won and lost Dravot and Carnehan subdue the mountain tribes and build an empire, but Dravot’s demand for a queen exposes his human mortality, provoking a revolt that ends in murder, crucifixion, and ruin.

The scholar's stratagem Jasmine disguises herself as a young man to navigate Chinese society, dodging eager suitors and entangled betrothals through quick wit as she journeys toward Peking.

Unmasking and resolution Reaching the capital, Jasmine reveals her true female identity, rectifies her trail of deceptive promises, and marries her beloved Tu while redirecting her former suitor to another bride.

A mother's tragic plea A dying Maori woman married to an Englishman banished her dark-eyed children from her bedside, desperate to keep them from embracing her native heritage before passing away.

Desolation in the tents Kathleen Drayton languishes in the arid Indian heat alongside a husband she does not respect, finding her suppressed romantic longing ignited by the arrival of an cultured visitor.

The heart's bitter triumph Following her husband's unexpected death, Kathleen rejects her lover's proposal, choosing self-respect and melancholy solitude over a passion that has withered into cold gray ashes.

The People

• Daniel Dravot: A charismatic British vagabond who longs to rule a kingdom. Driven by reckless ambition, he conquers Kafiristan, but his hubris and demand for a native bride lead directly to his downfall and death.
• Peachey Carnehan: Dravot’s loyal, sharp-browed companion. He urges restraint and adherence to their contract, suffering brutal crucifixion before crawling back to India carrying his leader's severed head.
• Jasmine: A brilliant Chinese woman who assumes a male disguise to protect her family and pursue her ambitions. Quick-witted and pragmatic, she relies on clever evasions to resolve romantic misunderstandings before marrying Tu.
• Tu: A gentle Chinese scholar whose intelligence and character win Jasmine's true affection, standing by her as her complex deceptions are untangled.
• Wei: An impatient friend of Tu who falls in love with the idea of Jasmine’s non-existent sister, constantly pushing for a marriage until the truth forces him onto a different path.
• Kathleen Drayton: A delicate, intense woman trapped in a dry Indian camp. Struggling between moral duty and romantic desire, she chooses solitary self-respect after her husband dies.
• Broomhurst: A cultured visitor whose arrival stirs Kathleen's buried emotions, though he is ultimately left waiting when she refuses to marry without genuine love.

In Its Own Voice

“I am the son of Alexander by Queen Semiramis, and you’re my younger brother and a God too!” Daniel Dravot exclaims to Carnehan in the height of his royal delusions after crowning himself ruler of Kafiristan.

“A horse cannot carry two saddles, and a woman cannot marry more than one man.” Jasmine reflects on her increasingly entangled deceptions while disguised as a male scholar.

“In due time we get our heart’s desire--when we have ceased to care for it.” Kathleen Drayton reflects mournfully to Broomhurst on the tragic irony of human longing after her husband's death.

What It's Really About

Underneath its tales of exotic travel and grand adventure, the collection examines the destabilizing nature of domain and identity. It questions whether imperial arrogance can ever truly subjugate foreign lands without corrupting or destroying the conqueror. The narratives probe the rigid social boundaries of race, gender, and nation, demonstrating how individuals who cross these lines—whether a British vagabond posing as a deity, a Chinese woman posing as a male scholar, or a Maori mother assimilating into English life—must pay a steep emotional or physical price. Ultimately, the book explores the tragedy of desire fulfilled too late, arguing that the pursuit of mastery over others or over one's circumstances often leaves the victor broken, alienated, and hollow.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to readers fascinated by the dark, complex mechanics of nineteenth-century colonial literature and foreign intrigue. It captures the eerie atmosphere of remote outposts, the tension of double lives, and the psychological strain of cultural isolation. Reading it provides an unvarnished look at period attitudes, including explicit racial hierarchies, Victorian anxieties regarding miscegenation, and casual imperial condescension that may unnerve modern readers.

Yet the collection remains compelling because it rarely delivers simple triumph. The prose ranges from Kipling’s muscular, dialect-heavy realism to the quiet, devastating emotional stillness of Netta Syrett's domestic drama. The narrative strength lies in its refusal to comfort the reader: power proves fleeting, romantic ideals collapse under the weight of guilt, and the frontier leaves every character altered or diminished. It endures as a stark study in human limitation and mismatched desires.

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