Praise for William Dalrymple''s Return of a King

"Brilliant. . . . The fullest and most powerful description of the West''s first encounter with Afghan society."
         -- The New York Times Book Review

"Magnificent. . . . [Dalrymple''s] histories read like novels. . . . This latest book delights and shocks."
         -- The Wall Street Journal

"Masterful. . . . Dalrymple makes an important contribution by including recently discovered Afghan accounts of the war."
         -- The Washington Post

"At once deeply researched and beautifully paced, Return of a King should win every prize for which it''s eligible."
         -- Bookforum

"With skill and deep humanity, Dalrymple seeks contemporary lessons in Britain''s disastrous nineteenth-century invasion."
         -- The New York Times Book Review (Editor''s Choice)

"A serious work of history that expands our understanding of the war of 1839-42 by drawing on sources found in Russia, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, many never before translated into English."
         -- Newsday

"Arguably the most important work in Dalrymple''s impressive oeuvre. . . . If context is important, reading Dalrymple is paramount."
         -- The Sunday Guardian (London)

"A masterful history. . . . And as the latest occupying force in Afghanistan negotiates its exit, this chronicle seems all too relevant now."
         -- The Economist

"In Return of a King , Dalrymple has done again what he did magnificently for two other telling episodes of British imperial history in White Mughals (2002) and The Last Mughal (2006). . . . Dalrymple has a narrative gift."
         -- The Huffington Post

"A thrilling, amusing and educational three-track tour de force, relevant to today and even the immediate future."
         -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Definitive. . . . Return of a King is not just a riveting account of one imperial disaster on the roof of the world; it teaches unforgettable lessons about the perils of neocolonial adventures everywhere."
         -- Literary Review

"A major contribution to the historiography of south-west Asia and of the British empire. . . . Return of a King will come to be seen as the definitive account of the first and most disastrous western attempt to invade Afghanistan."
         -- New Statesman

"Complex and remarkable. . . . As taut and richly embroidered as a great novel. . . . This book is a masterpiece of nuanced writing and research, and a thrilling account of a watershed Victorian conflict."
         -- The Sunday Telegraph (London)

"[Dalrymple] is a master storyteller, whose special gift lies in the use of indigenous sources, so often neglected by imperial chroniclers. . . . Almost every page of Dalrymple''s splendid narrative echoes with latter-day reverberations."
         -- The Sunday Times (London)

"Few writers could go wrong with a story populated with so many villains, rogues, poltroons, swashbucklers, spies, assassins and heroes. But none would make a better job of it than William Dalrymple in this thrilling, magnificently evocative Return of a King ."
         -- Mail on Sunday (London)

"Marvelous. . . . Brilliant, exact language. . . . There is much in Dalrymple''s superb book that has contemporary resonance."
         -- Sunday Herald

"Shows all the elements we have come to expect from Dalrymple: the clear, fluid prose, the ability to give complex historical events shape, story and meaning, the use of new local sources to allow the voices of the people . . . to be heard alongside the much-better documented accounts of the invaders. . . . This is clear-eyed, non-judgmental, sober history, beautifully told."
         -- The Observer (London)

"Sensationally good. . . . Dalrymple writes the kind of history that few historians can match."
         -- The Scotsman

"An absorbing and beautifully written account of a doomed effort to control an apparently uncontrollably population. . . . A saga that makes for marvelous storytelling, filled with heroes, knaves, incompetent fools, and savage, bloodthirsty warriors. It has been told often before but perhaps never so well as by Dalrymple."
         -- Booklist (starred)