King Rat (1962 novel)

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**Title** **King Rat**
Cover of the 1st Edition hardback
Author	James Clavell
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Asian Saga
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	Little Brown & Co (USA) & Martin Joseph (UK)
Released	1962
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	Gai-Jin
Followed by	Noble House

This article is about the 1962 James Clavell novel. For the 1998 China Miéville novel, see King Rat (1998 novel).

King Rat is a 1962 novel by James Clavell. Set during World War II, Clavell's literary debut describes the struggle for survival of British, Australian and American prisoners of war in a Japanese camp in Singapore — a description informed by Clavell's own three-year experience as a prisoner in the notorious Changi Prison camp. One of the major characters, "Peter Marlowe," is based upon Clavell's younger self.

Despite its fearsome reputation, Changi was historically among the better-run Japanese camps, with only 850 deaths among the 87,000 prisoners who passed through^[1].

King Rat was retroactively made the first book in Clavell's sweeping series, the Asian Saga. Several main characters from King Rat appear again in Noble House.

1 Plot summary
2 Characters in "King Rat"
3 Main themes
4 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Peter Marlowe, a young British Flight Lieutenant enters the camp and finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between Robin Grey, a British officer & Provost Marshal and the "King", a street smart American corporal. Grey is attempting to maintain strict military discipline and organized cooperation among the prisoners as the means for their survival. The King is the camp's resident "capitalist, living by a code of self-reliance, free-trade and rugged-individualism.

Despite being only an enlisted man and a civilian without distinction in life, the King has become a major power in the enclosed society of the P.O.W. camp through his wits, charisma and intelligence. Trading with Korean guards and various other prisoners for food, clothing, information, and what few luxuries are available, the King keeps himself and his men alive. Feeling that the discipline and cooperation insisted upon by Grey is useless in their brutal situation, the King rebels against Grey and induces the morally upright Marlowe to his aid.

Grey is a legal positivist, following the rules for their own sake, and using his position as Provost Marshal in an attempt to gain the status unreachable to him in British society.

Marlowe is initially put-off by the King but begins to understand that the philosophy that he lives by is not the dog-eat-dog that Grey would have them believe. Rather, the King asks for the best of each man and rewards them accordingly, irrespective of class or position.

It is interesting to note that the story of King Rat continues in Noble House where Marlowe (Clavell) is a writer visiting Hong Kong for research and Grey is a British Spy for Communist Russia, and a traitor to all in his life, including himself.

[edit] Characters in "King Rat"

The King – an American corporal, at the end of the novel he is sent back to the United States, Marlowe never sees him again.
Peter Marlowe; main protagonist, a young British pilot. He is an English P.O.W. in Changi prison during World War II, later becomes an author.
Robin Grey – an older British officer, after the war becomes a member of parliament and a Russian agent.

[edit] Main themes

The novel can be understood an examination of the ethics of individualism and natural law in opposition to collectivism and legal positivism. In this sense the novel takes on a certain amount of political significance in that it establishes two forms of political ideology that Clavell would explore in his entire Asian Saga series. The King relies on free trade to survive, in which he reaps the most reward, although he does help all the men who are associated with him. While the system Grey attempts to enforce is one of Socialistic equality in that every man would only get what was rationed by their captors.

In recent years, some critics have compared the philosophy and character of the King to that of Ayn Rand's Howard Roark from The Fountainhead. Clavell himself lent credence to this claim by sending Ayn Rand a copy of Noble House in 1981 with the following inscription - "This is for Ayn Rand – one of the real, true talents on this earth for which many, many thanks. James C, New York, 2 Sept 81.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

A film adaptation was released in 1965, the first of several of Clavell's novels to be so adapted. The character of the King was altered to Clavell's dismay, to make him more "understandable" to an American audience.