Hermann von Schlagintweit, the eldest of the Schlagintweit brothers of Munich, Germany. | Photo Credit: Wiki Commons
In his engrossing novel, The Museum of the World, Christopher Kloeble weaves a fictional narrative around the real-life journey undertaken by three Bavarian brothers — Hermann, Adolf and Robert Schlagintweit — across India and the Himalayas in the 19th century.
Their scientific expedition, supported by the East India Company and endorsed by the respected scientist Alexander von Humboldt, spanned three eventful years. It is considered ‘one of the most expensive and elaborate expeditions of the modern era’.
The novel opens with the brothers’ arrival in Bombay in 1854 and their fateful decision to hire Bartholomew, “an almost twelve-year-old” orphan to travel with them. Bartholomew speaks many languages, including Hindi, English, German, Gujarati and Punjabi. He is also brushing up on his Bavarian.
Limits on ambition
He is a child who has learnt to live by his wits, handling a harsh adult world on his own. Bartholomew’s skill as a translator makes him a valuable travel companion for the Bavarian brothers. His witty, sharply observant first-person voice livens up the proceedings right from the start.
Kloeble endows Bartholomew with both the capacity for childlike wonder and a heightened adult awareness of the world. The thrilling encounters that pepper the expedition are viewed through Bartholomew’s eyes as are the quirks of the European explorers and their interactions with Indians. Bartholomew’s take on everything he sees and experiences along the way is as much a commentary on a momentous journey as it is on the colonial project, history and India’s place in the world.
The “ambitious orphan” nurses a dream of setting up a museum of his own to house a collection of objects he holds dear. Time and again, he is reminded by the world that a brown boy like him cannot afford such dreams. Museums are founded by the rich and powerful, and exploration is the “master’s” privilege. He has no right to aspire to collect expensive objects or even “invisible things like feelings, dreams and memories” and build a “museum for all of us Indians”.
The translator, Rekha Kamath Rajan, does a fine job of seamlessly transporting English-speaking readers into the tale Bartholomew weaves as the expedition crisscrosses India.
The Museum of the World
₹599
The reviewer is the author of ‘A Happy Place and Other Stories’.
