The Orchid House: Splendours and Miseries of the Kingdom of Oudh 1827-1857

The Orchid House is the fantastic history of the Indian kingdom of Oudh between 1827 and 1856.  During this time four kings reigned - for they could not be said to have ruled.  The first was described by a contemporary as a profligate and a sot, devoid of sense, who thinks of nothing but his own licentious pleasures'. The second was an old cripple who had never expected to be king.  The third hid himself in his palace and left the country to the mal administration of corrupt ministers whose one idea was to acquire as much for themselves as possible.  The last was a crazy imbecile, surrounded exclusively by eunuchs, fiddlers, and poetasters...and the Minister and his creatures who ware worse than all.  Their story is woven into an Indian nights' entertainment of fabulous extravagance, vice and the heady aroma of the East...... (From Dustjacket cover)