Satirizing British society and incorporating material from a wide range of the orientalists’ new translations of Indian writing, Elizabeth Hamilton’s book is a key document in the debates which raged in England over the British role in India. It remains one of the most interesting political novels of the 18th century.

In Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah, Elizabeth Hamilton engages directly with the major issues of her day, from colonialism and the “New Philosophy” to the present state of literature and female education. Satirizing British society and incorporating material from a wide range of the orientalists’ new translations of Indian writing, Hamilton’s book is a key document in the debates which raged in England over the British role in India. It remains one of the most interesting political novels of the 18th century.