Customer Reviews
Utterly Utterly brilliant. - By: The Riddler, 17 Nov 2009 
Read it & enjoy. He is such an engaging writer, the book is well researched & well put together. The best bit is that he always finds primary sources that other writers just have not bothered to look for. Dalrymple always goes the extra mile & deservedly is one of the best there is.
Dalrymple at his best - By: Spilsbury, 29 Jul 2009 There are 9 Delhi'sin History. Each rich incarnation laid over the preceding. Decaying buildings of grandeur a testament to the richness of Delhi's oft neglected cultural legacy.
the Mughal contribution to Delhi's architecture is particularly interesting as are contemporary India ambivalent attitudes to this history. Delhi is brought to life as a city of Poets where even the courtesans could quote from the Persian Classics.
Dalrymple chronicles the trauma of Delhi post partition & the Punjabification of this old Mughal gem.
History & contemporary observations make this a most fascinating & thought provoking travel companion.
City of Djinns - By: Mrs. V. Pandey, 11 Nov 2007 I recently read city of djinns written by william dalrymple. It was such an honour to know that somebody has actually tried, visiting & livingin delhi to know the real delhi. It is so amazing to read your own thoughts which have been devloped over the years & know know someone else has thought them too. I believe i can really relate to the book as i was born & brought upin delhi. I had always thought that there is something special about the place & the way Mr Darlmaple has researched & written the book is so beautiful.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interestedin reading a bit about our history, to know real Indians, not Hindus, not Muslims, Sikhs or Christians but true Indians, then they must read this book. I wish I could give more stars to the book.
I will certainly read other books written by Mr Dalrymaple.
The Legacy of Partition - By: Jeane FREER, 10 Sep 2007 
« City of Djinns: A Yearin Delhi » William Dalrymple HarperCollins 1993
« City of Djinns: A Yearin Delhi » was my travel reading for my first trip to Indiain the summer of 2007, a trip which began & endedin Delhi. Having read other writers & other Dalrymple books on India before I set out, I read « City of Djinns: A Yearin Delhi » first on my outward journey, & 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 & poorly spoken guides who were difficult to understand & unable to answer questionsin any depth. Dalrymple's book helped me to tie the city & its sites & 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 & 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 & spoke volumesin 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 & instil us with visions of the beauty that once radiatedin 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 encounteredin 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 & made me feel uncomfortable. These passages were extensive, & not changed sufficiently to feel newin 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 & hardship & touched almost every familyin Indiain one way or another. As we watch India vie for its placein the globalised technological marketplace, we will understand her better if we remember this recent back-storyin her development.
Outstanding - By: S. Singh, 04 Jan 2007 It is hard for most people to pick out the highlights of one's life.....reading this book for me is surely one of them.
I have read this book several times now...each time I spot another gem.
