Twenty Wives, O My!

I'm on an Eastern kick lately. Maybe I got tired of all these books on Henry VIII and other British novels. Really, what's the fascination with Henry's wives?? It's ridiculous! Furthermore, I can't read a story revolving around a monarch I detest. There are actually few monarchs I like but Henry VIII is so far off my chart, he's in the despicable category.

Anyways, The Twenthieth Wife, by Indu Sundaresan, is set in seventeenth-century Mughal India. In fact, this story immediately precedes the story in Beneath a Marble Sky, by John Shors. I thought this would be a love story of an emperor and it was....but the marriage takes place at the end of the novel. There's not much love in this book but there is a lot of history.

Mehrunnisa, our heroine, falls in love at an early age to Prince Salim, son of Emperor Akbar. When it comes time for her to marry, she is sent off, at the emperor's request, to be the wife of a lowly soldier. Her dreams shattered, she endures her marriage to an unintelligent oaf of a man. The one good thing to come out of her marriage is a daughter, Ladli. Meanwhile, there are assassination attempts and plots, rebellions, and wars going on throughout the empire.

Her husband, after ten years of marriage, dies a traitor and Mehrunnisa comes home to the royal harem and the "dowager" empress, who took a liking to her as a child. Eventually, Prince Salim, now emperor and called Jahangir, courts her and they marry. Mehrunnisa's neice, Mumtaz Mahal, marries Salim's son, Shah Jahan, who later builds the Taj Mahal in her honor. It seems that Mehrunissa's family had a way of charming the emperors.

The problem with this book is the characters. Mehrunnisa has no concept of humility and even when she is "suffering" she has more than the common person. Her sense of entitlement is annoying. And Jahangir....well, he seemed to be a bit of a wimp and I have no respect for wimpy men, especially those who are monarchs.

This was a good read but definitely not on par with Beneath the Marble Sky.