City of Djinns

This book concerns the year Dalrymple spends in Delhi, attempting to uncover the secrets and hidden past of this once-great city. Dalrymple skillfully weaves the accounts of his daily life with the history of Delhi. One moment, you are reading about a harrowing taxi-cab ride, and the next page, an account of Shah Jehan's life begins. Few writers can change the pace so suddenly and get away with it, but Dalrymple is able to segue into and out of topics effortlessly.

The pacing and tone of the book is great, and he injects enough humor to keep the reader chuckling from time to time. An overall great read.

This book is definitely one you should read if you are at all interested in India.

This is a superb book on Delhi's history without the textbook type narrative that usually is associated with books like these.
Appreciating Delhi is difficult for most non-Delhi wallahs for the ostentatious ways and too aggressive nature of its modern day denizens..but having read this book is like lifting the screen to see a much more beautiful and unbelievably long past of the city; to date a city's history till that long back is truly an amazing feat shown by Dalrymple here.

Dalrymple gives comprehensive and unbiased accounts from the city's birth to it present day status, toggling between anecdotes of his own experiences in the city. In doing so, he succeeds in bringing out the secret lives of the eunuchs, passionate pigeon fights in Old Delhi, the wild rule of William Fraser in the jungles of Mehrauli, the frivolous codes of the decorum practiced in Mughal period, the popularity of the Sufi saints and their powers and much more to help you envisage the rich heritage of the city.

Whether you plan to visit Delhi, have been blessed to have been there, or just want to read an informative, good traveler's (note: not tourist) tale, then City of Djinns should be on your list of books to read. William Dalrymple paints a picture full of humor and fascinating detail, mixed with love and frustration. Which is what Delhi is: fascinating, frustrating, fun, and full of incredible people. Delhi is multi-layered and not easily explained. Delhi has to be experienced. Yet, Dalrymple brings to life a lot of the feeling of this magnificent city. More importantly for me, he brings to life part of its history, details history books leave out, alley ways that deserve to be explored. As a traveler blessed to return to Delhi fairly often, I have found the details of Dalrymple's book adding value to my visits - by knowing which alley ways might just be explored.

Delhi is a city of many flavors. Some can be tasted, some viewed, some just felt and still others which are just to be believed......just taken for granted.
This little book by Dalrymple brings to life a new flavor on almost every leaf.
One moment you will have your heart racing finding yourself in the midst of a mehfil at the pinnacle of Delhi's literary history and a page later you will suddenly be transported to dereliction of today's old Delhi, description of mouth watering delicacies from Dara Shikoh's wedding is contrasted by thirst and hunger of Daulatabad death march.

The book is remarkably lucid and continuous yet it webs off to touch an aspect of Delhi's life and pulse, leaping off once in a while, only to loop back again to complete a full circle.
Alternating between past and present, like day and night, the author spans over 3000 years of Delhi's history and history of its peoples in an ingeniously funny and at the same time poignant way.
Dalrymple is a genius of pen and perception and City of Djinns is simply a superlative work of art.

« City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi » William Dalrymple HarperCollins 1993

« City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi » was my travel reading for my first trip to India in the summer of 2007, a trip which began and ended in Delhi. Having read other writers and other Dalrymple books on India before I set out, I read « City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi » first on my outward journey, and then reviewed it again as we made our way back to Delhi on the last stage of our tour. The book was an invaluable resource, supplementing the ill-informed and poorly spoken guides who were difficult to understand and unable to answer questions in any depth. Dalrymple's book helped me to tie the city and its sites and history together into some sort of coherent whole. I also found the pen-and-ink illustrations by Dalrymple's wife Olivia Fraser very illuminating. Although at first sight they struck me as much too calm and uncluttered to convey the true image of the places they posed, I later came to appreciate how they captured the inherent essence of their subject and spoke volumes in their simple way.

As a journalist, Dalrymple has a knack for finding the right people to talk with - people with living memories of the time he writes about, who can bring to life the crumbling ruins they inhabit and instil us with visions of the beauty that once radiated in Delhi. It is certainly difficult to see today but reading the stories did help me to understand the sensibilities of some of the « Delhi-wallahs » we encountered in our travels.

My one criticism of the book is that he reuses material that has appeared elsewhere, which broke the rhythm of my involvement with his story and made me feel uncomfortable. These passages were extensive, and not changed sufficiently to feel new in any way. I was surprised that his editors allowed this to pass, unless there were deadline difficulties.

The overall impression that I was left with is that India today is still suffering from the reverberations of the devastation of partition, which brought incomprehensible tragedy and hardship and touched almost every family in India in one way or another. As we watch India vie for its place in the globalised technological marketplace, we will understand her better if we remember this recent back-story in her development.

This is definitely one of the best books I have read. Dalrymple has a fascinating way of writing. He does not just drab on about a place in a matter of the fact way as the usual travel books do. He speaks to the people and gets the different emotions of the place out of them. Inspite of being from India-Bombay, I was never lucky enough to explore Delhi for a longer period of time.
This book very interestingly goes backwards into the history of the city of Delhi. The Mughal part and the part on partition had me hooked on to the book. The writer visits Karachi, Shimla, Daulatabad and a number of othe places to get the essence of Delhi.
Unfortunately for those planning to go to Delhi, while the City of Djinns makes fascinating reading, most of today's Delhi is a big mess. All the people from Delhi I have met, only have bad words about it. The population, crime rate, congestion, pollution are all very high. The once beautiful city of high Dehli- Urdu culture and tehzeeb (manners), has now been overtaken by a host of nouveau riche Punjabi immigrants who have given the city financial prosperity but made it lose its essence..... its heart.

A really wonderful book about the city of Delhi. Dalrymple and his wife go to spend a year living in Delhi (how did they afford this?), and he uses this arrangement as a way of chronicling the present day status of the city and delving deep into its history. He's done a very nice job of moving back and forth between present and past, managing to keep all his meetings and interviews with various experts quite interesting. The only part which lost my interest was an extended look into Sufi mysticism, but I just skimmed it and moved along. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in India, and especially to anyone planning a trip to Delhi.

William Dalrymple has a great writing style and a deep apetite for understanding the historical and cultural context. He neither takes the clinical distant approach to his subjects neither does he use a patronizing attitude to India. If you have been to Delhi, the book will be a great reading; if are planning to go there, it should be required reading. You will enjoy your trip so much more. Even if you don't go to Delhi, it is just a wonderful reading. Olivia has done a great job in her illustrations.

An entertaining and sometimes insightful series of sketches about ex-pat life in Delhi. A good gift for someone traveling that way, fun to read in the city.

I'd also recommend Rohinton Mistry's _A Fine Balance_ if you're going to India--for the perverse reason that it is so overwhelmingly depressing that it nearly adequately prepares first-time visitors for the experience. Incidentally, Mistry's book is also interesting on Indian history, and a beautifully well-written and plotted novel.

Two very different books, but a good pairing for visitors--armchair or otherwise.

If you think you know Dehli well, then read this as I am sure you will learn something new. It's a great read and will sure to set you searching and I found it went a long way to explain what is so different about Dehli, compared to other Indian cities.

For all those folks who have a deep interest and appreciation in the history and "goings on" of the sub continent William Dalrymple's book "City of the Djinns" is like a sweet Indian Jalebi treat, just waiting to be enjoyed and savored. In his own way, Mr. Dalrymple, an ex-pat, Scotsman is a 21st century Marco Polo re-discovering many of the hidden facets and stories of mother India that have been lost during her journey to "now".

The book itself is extremely well written, easy to read, and never boring. It consist of a series of cat and mouse interplays of Mr. Dalrymple's personal stories (while living with his family in Delhi) which logically flow into investigations of the various Delhi historical eras and their remaining monuments and marks on the people and city of today.

Additionally, there are delightful illustrations and drawings done by Mr. Dalrymple's angel of a wife Olivia, who has accompanied him in this love affair he has with India.

Bottom line - if you live in Delhi or plan on visiting, this book is a must, and even if you don't plan on going there anytime soon, you'll want to after reading this book.

As the book unfolds, William Dalrymple discovers the layers of history of Delhi, much like the excavator mentioned toward the end.
As he ventures to find remnants of a culture in Pakistan, and later in Daulatabad, you feel you're on the journey yourself. Having visited Delhi only recently, I wished I had read the book before going there. Without being overly patronizing or eurocentric, he shares his journey with us. Watch for the everyday people that know extraordinary ones- the dancer who knows the unani doctor, the jeweler who knows the eunuch queen well, and the likeable Dr. Jaffrey who is the underrecognized authority on Delhi.
I whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone who's a travel, history or India buff.

..that's what William has put into this book. It is an excellent account of the year he spent in India with his wife. At the very outset of the book my admiration for William grew ten fold when I realized that to fully appreciate and highlight his experiences he had chosen to live as a paying guest in Delhi as opposed to finding more sequestered living quarters.
But the book itself masterfully weaves in and out of the past and persent which both appear just as colorful through his eyes. I like the fact that he went out of his way to explore places that few Indians would visit and categorically dispell any myths that the world may have about such places (the eunach colony in Delhi).
Lovely depection of India its people and its history........

A master's student of Asian cultures at the University of Pennsylvania, I first began reading William Dalrymple's books in the winter of 2003, just prior to my first trip to Asia. I found a beat up copy of "The Age of Kali" in my neighborhood's library when I was working a soul-killing desk job. The book was, in many ways, my introduction to India. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this book changed my life.

If you have read this far, then you must, must, must read these books.

I studied in India in 2004 and am now reading "City of Djinn", about Dalrymple's year in Delhi and it is just as intoxicating as "Age of Kali."

I wrote Mr. Dalrymple the following email just last night:

Hello William!

I'm finishing up my master's thesis and procrastinating the final touches (again) and I went surfing the web and came upon your site.

I'm the middle of "City of Djinn" and I just wanted to THANK YOU for both this book AND "The Age of Kali", which I read shortly before my first trip to Asia in 2003. I won't go into detail as I can't procrastinate for quite that long, but the book changed my life and it made me fall in love with India.

I finally spent time in India - the summer of 2004 and found that A of K was instrumental in my quest to decode some small part of the India around me.

So, there you have it. Not as effusive and jubilant as it might be (it's 1:30 am here on the East Coast of the USA) but sincere and long overdue, nonetheless.

Good night from the USA,

Elizabeth Garrott

PS: Thank you, also, for the portrait of Balvinder Singh, the Puris, William Fraser, and lady who died at the "hands" of a milk-fed cobra - all from "City of Djinn"

This book re-awakened by desire to return to India, and experience once again the madness, and beauty that is India. He made me realise that I had viewed Delhi superficially in the past, only scratching the surface, and never plunging into the dark depths of what lay beneath the rapidly growing megalopolis. I would recommend the book to anybody visiting India or its capital.

However, the author himself only superficially touched on Delhi as well. The title itself indicates he was focussing on Mughal Delhi, and was not particularly interested in much more. It shows in that it is suprising that a book could be written about a city which has had a Hindu prescence for millenia and barely touch on them. It would be as in one wrote a history of Montreal, and concentrated on the Anglophones, never touching on the fact that the city was founded by the French, and was at best a small anglo enclave in a French sea. The Hindu roots of the city, rooted as they are in the epic war of the Mahabharata, are relegated to a passing comment of a rumble between a couple of tribes of cave men. His comments about the lack of Hindu monuments in the city are astounding naive, given that many of the great Muslim, and even Moghul monuments were constructed from the debris of temples destroyed by the intolerant conquerors of Delhi in the middle ages. His treatment of Punjabis, which alternated between shrewd business people to village bumpkins fed into stereotypes, except when he touched on the horrific massacres following the death of Indira Ghandi.

Kudos to Dalrymple for a great work, but too bad for his overly narrow vision. While the great Moghul and Islamic architecture astounds, the spirit of Delhi has alway been Hindu, in that it seemingly continously undergoes the cycle of death and rebirth. The author never understood that.

Came across Darymple's writings in a short extract within a travel book called Love Delhi. His prose was instantly accessible and attractive so as we were due in Delhi I decided to buy the book. Which my wife promptly absconded with...

Anyway, I did eventually get to read it after we returned from India and it is a terrific history of Delhi and helps the visitor understand India a whole lot more. Dalrymple makes history generally, and this topic specifically, very approachable. BTW, my wife gave it the thumbs up as well.

A truly marvelous book for anyone who loves India, whether they have been there in the flesh or in spirit. Dalrymple is simply one of the best writers around when it comes to creating a tapestry that has inner and outer journey so beautifully interwoven.

City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi was a total delight to read.I loved how it was like each page was a dicovery of a new tidbit, a new treasure of insight.The humor was also a delightful surprise.Has awakened a thirst to read more about colonial and modern India.

Very highly recommended! :D

This book was published in 1993 and I got the chance to read it in 2005 and I must say no other book,author or historian has portrayed Delhi as Dalrymple did!.I cant believe how much I'm in love with this wonderful city more so after reading this book!.Author's sense of humour ably supports his apt and lucid sense of history.His passion for Delhi absolutely shines through and that illuminates every page.Though 'm young and not intelligent enough to commment on greats works and authors but Dalrymple is definitely on the greats!.He sure would make his generation proud.It is a must read whether you like Delhi,history or not.

Travelbook written by a historian, history book written by a traveller... City of djinns is both and more... it manages to strike a fine balance between historical accounts, the author's humours anecdotes, detailed architectural descriptions and blends the whole with insightful comments on the culture and history of India and Islam. Even if like me, you're relatively ignorant about both, you should still enjoy it.

A friend suggested City of Jinns to me during my first visit to India. I fell in love with the book and with Dalrymple's style of writing. He ties together the history of India, the present and his own experience of culture in a very creative way. It helped me to laugh at my own western mindset and be more appreciate & respectful of the ways of the Indians.

Dalrymple writes wonderfully. I read this while visiting Delhi, and it made me want to find all those places he described - many of which are off the beaten track. Dalrymple, a true historian, uncovers a whole other India beneath what regular tourists see. Both his discoveries as well as the reflections on his own life woven in are fascinating. I highly recommend this book, and I even more so recommend reading it while travelling in India, as it will fully allow you to appreciate "City of Djinns".

As an Indian and a history buff it was really satisfying to read this book.Being a resident of Delhi it is a great thrill to be living in a city which has a glorious past and the evidence is there in all the monuments that dot the city.To read a book that incorporates all these elements in the narrative juxtaposing the past and the present is a treat.The author's non judgmental stance on an alien culture is really refeshing.

Excellent book!! There is a touch of Khushwant singh's prose history narrative (check out Khushwant Singh's Delhi). Good quality and such books become a lifelong collection to be read again and again.

A must-read for anyone travelling to Delhi, and a must-read for anyone interested in a superb blend of travel and historical writing. Dalrymple takes you to a magical place far beyond the smoggy, noisy modern city, and makes you wish you could stay there. Even if you never go to Delhi, City of Djinns will change the way you think of it forever.

You have to be really into India and all its madness and glory to enjoy this one (which I am) but it really transports you to this country's magnificent and tragic past and to its tragic present of garbage heaps and crumbling domes and beggars in the streets. A keeper.

Dalrymple knows tons about the history of Delhi. The book is poignant but not a comedy as advertised. He weaves past and present by ambitiously visiting historic sites to wean the truth out of them while detailing present family life with an Indian landlady. There are also some sweet water color illustrations.

This book provides an insight into the history of Delhi as well as sharing the experience of absorbing all of the anomalies of living there. It is the first book I have read by this author on Delhi and would certainly feel encouraged to read other books by him.

this book is great.I really like the way W.D. describes his living in Delhi, he is funny and he never patronizes.
I found strange how he always finds this amazing people there just to help him.
he is very educated but sometimes I think he shows off all his knowledge..
anyway my next trip to india will be to delhi