Other editions of book The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer

In 1905, Francis Yeats-Brown, then a young cavalryman, arrives in Bengal to serve in the 41st Bengal Lancers regiment. He quickly discovers that life in the presence of his fellow soldiers is anything but boring. When not on active duty, he spends his time riding horses around the countryside, hunting wild pigs and boars, and smoking tobacco. In addition to all this, Yeats-Brown begins to write about his exploits in India and the life of a Bengal lancer. In the middle of all this, he falls in love with "Masheen", a local woman with a talent for dancing, with whom he begins an affair. Their love becomes known as "his forbidden love affair" within his regiment.

India was one of the most adventurous and romantic places on Earth in the early twentieth century. Though decades of political unrest, and eventual independence from Britain, were only a few years away, India in the early 1910s was a magnet for young men with a longing for adventure. Such a man was Francis Yeats Brown. Arriving in 1905, Brown soon discovered that life among his chosen regiment, the famed Bengal Lancers, was anything but boring. When he wasn't practising his military skills, the young cavalryman was riding his various horses in polo matches, or chasing wild boars. Plus there were a million mysteries waiting outside his door to explore, including his forbidden love affair with Masheen, the dancing girl. Yet in addition to being a skilful soldier and an intrepid traveller, Yeats Brown was a terrific writer. He takes the reader to out-of-the-way corners of the India that once was, but is no more. There he introduces a timeless cast of fakirs, mercenaries, rajas, and rogues. It was normal in the colourful world that Yeats-Brown moved through to have breakfast with an English general, then pass the time of day with a native whose speciality was locating cobras in the bedroom! Thus "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" remains a charming classic full of delightful descriptions, mystic experiences, and enduring legends from a place and a time now gone forever.

In The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, F. Yeats-Brown tells how, as a young and callow subaltern, eighteen years old, he set sail for India to join the colonial English Army. He lived through incredible accidents and dangers to tell this story of his lives- his life as a hard-riding soldier, his mystic life in the cult of Yoga, his life as a sportsman with his horses and dogs and hunting and polo, and his prison life in an underground cellar in Constantinople.