A wonderfully entertaining biography of a man of great wealth who spent the last decade of his life in legal limbo, trapped in a Chancery court case that hinged on his condition as a lunatic. That would be remarkable enough for the story of any Victorian gentleman, but the subject of this fascinating narrative is David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, a ... Read moregross, corpulent and rakish man who inherited the fabulous wealth of the Begum of the principality of Sardhana in India... In Fisher's writing [Dyce Sombre] comes to life as vividly as the best fictional creation, and in enjoying that human complexity, the reader also learns much about the absurdity and cruelty of Victorian family law.
Times Higher Education
Fisher presents a compelling story, one that will fascinate any scholar interested in Britain's Indian Empire or its legal consequences.
Mary Ellis Gibson, Elizabeth Rosenthal Distinguished Excellence Professor, Department of English, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Michael H. Fisher has written a fascinating book, deeply probing questions of nationality, sanity and race with a wide knowledge of legal and medical issues. He has located over 700 published articles about this strange man, has searched volumes of court records and combed what remains of Dyce Sombre's private diary.
Times Literary Supplement
This is a quintessentially nineteenth-century story that constantly reminded me of the kinds of entanglements so central to Dickens' stories in Bleak House. The tale has a novelistic quality that Fisher adroitly brings alive even as his scholarly voice reminds us of the bigger stories that lie behind this tragic life.
Professor Philippa Levine, University of California, Berkeley This is a remarkable and incredibly engaging story, one that focuses not only on Sombre's controversial career in Britain, but also his Indian childhood and his subsequent movements through the Malay Straits, Singapore, Macao, China, continental Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Sombre is a wonderful protagonist and Professor Fisher should be lauded for recovering the richness and strangeness of this remarkable individual's life.
Professor Tony Ballantyne, Washington University, St Louis Show Less