Do provide the detailed summary b& theme of yasmine gooneratne's - the pleasures of conquest

Prathipa n Best Answer

Gooneratne's novel "The Pleasures of Conquest" is a witty post-colonial novel that comprises of 4 stories. Each story is interlinked by the characters that pop up from one story to another and with the setting which is usually a luxurious hotel called 'The New Imperial'. The novel is set in a fictitious country called "Amnesia" understood as the country called 'Sri Lanka'. The first story is about Stella Mallinson a popular writer who travels to Amnesia and stays at the New Imperial. Her intention is to collect a group of Amnesian writers and ask each of them to contribute a chapter to her novel. She decides to sell this novel in the USA and gain popularity as a group. She pokes fun about the Americans in this part. The second story is about Philip Destry who has written many books. One among them is the biography of a British Sir John D'Esetery a colonialist in Ceylon. Leila Tan helped him writing this book and she was his muse in writing too. The third story is about Angela Forbes and Peter. The couple lived there in Amnesia but Angela left Peter when she found out that he was involved in an abortive coup. We also have the story of Edith Crooker who owns a board house. The author criticises Western colonial slumming, tourist colonialism, British and Dutch colonialism in this section. The fourth story is critical about patriarchy. This story focuses on Mallika a woman who was denied of education and cannot read. For Women of her times education was harmful and it's not necessary for their living. Later Mallika helps an amnesian family to bring up their child. Her stories are translated and are up on the newspaper with the help of this family.