Abstract
The emergence of the British Empire in India saw the rise and fall of nabobs, merchants-turned-officers who returned to Britain with unexplained wealth and threatened to disrupt social order. This article explores the nabob as it was imagined in fiction and performed on stage. The nabob as a character provides a lens through which to explore the emergence of the empire. The essay also suggests that these imaginaries spilled over into other contexts, including the trial of Warren Hastings. The failure of the trial, it is suggested, marked the end of the nabob’s career as a villain on and off stage.
Recommended Citation
Roy, Mrinmoyee
(2025)
"The Rise and Fall of the Nabob: Narrating the Emerging Empire in
Eighteenth-Century England,"
Narrative Culture: Vol. 12:
Iss.
2, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/narrative/vol12/iss2/2