“This is the story of a rape,” we read on the first page of Paul Scott’s monumental The Raj Quartet, “of the events that led up to it and followed it and of the place in which it happened.” Written over 10 years, from 1965 to 1975, the work is divided into four volumes, the first titled “The Jewel in the Crown.” Scott’s masterpiece is set in the last years of British rule in India, an unrest that builds to breaking during W.W. II, and its breadth, depth, and historical authority is on a par with Tolstoy’s great novels. The 14-part Granada TV production of 1984 is a cornerstone series for those who saw it then, and I have returned to it many times for its power and beauty. The performances—from Peggy Ashcroft, Tim Pigott-Smith, Art Malik, Susan Wooldridge, Eric Porter, and others—are superb. Scott tells the story of England in India from myriad perches and points of view, and into this he places the most heartbreaking of love stories. It haunts the book’s 2,000-plus pages, haunts this unforgettable achievement in filmmaking, and will haunt you. —Laura Jacobs

Laura Jacobs is AIR MAIL’s Arts Intel Report Editor