“Black Narcissus” Rumer Godden (1939) Review | Nuns slowly go mad

★★★★★ Nuns with good intentions in the isolated hills out of Darjeeling, which used to be a harem. If that doesn’t promise the hysteria and darkness. As expected they slowly went mad.

🔽 log 🔽
Black Narcissus 
Rumer Godden, 1939
258 pages
Read 2024.8


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
Nuns with good intentions in the isolated hills out of Darjeeling, which used to be a harem.
If that doesn't promise the hysteria and darkness, I don't know what does. 
As expected they slowly went mad.

It's in a way stereotypical, how can they dare to go out to someone else's back garden to preach, when the locals have been living perfectly fine. 
How could the women, with different tempers expect to live peacefully, when they're not welcome.

It's the dark side of living in Darjeeling hills, as the young General said, people go mad when they stay too close to the mountain Kanchenjunga, God.

Sexual tensions, the struggle between white supremacy and Christian philanthropy, the end of British Empire.
And it did make it into a rather successful film and series.
In the final days of the Imperial rule, some British also thought it was good and made a film out of it, too. I must watch it.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Black Narcissus: A Novel

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Black Narcissus: Now a haunting BBC drama starring Gemma Arterton (Virago Modern Classics Book 158)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Narciso nero (Italiano)