The story takes place in India during the British Raj period and concerns the adventures of a young man named Hussein.

Kirkus UK described it as a book "to read for the fun of the 'entertainment' and the light that it throws on the development of one of the great writers of historical fiction.

At this time in his life Hussein falls in love with a well-off young woman named Sashiya, which embroils him with a rival, Kadir Baksh.

Spying leads to Feroze Khan's murder in Peshawar, and Hussein resolves to put into practice the lessons he has learned about storytelling and snake charming.

[1] In the foreword to the reprint, O'Brian describes his sources for Hussein: Although I had known some Indians, Muslim and Hindu, at that time I had never been to India, so the book is largely derivative, based on reading and on the recollections, anecdotes and letters of friends of relations who were well acquainted with that vast country...[6]O'Brian was credited in The New York Times with establishing a sense of place,[7] this despite his youth and lack of experience visiting India.

[10]In the scenes with Hussein and his sweetheart, Sashiya, O'Brian employs a dry wit[7] as he creates the pair's fascination with the "peculiarly unoriginal" expressions which lovers use.

Finally, he succeeds with his tale of the Prince of Kathiawar before a critical jury of Ram Narain and the two men who are pursuing the perpetrators of the mischief in Kappilavatthu.

[14] Hussein is brought to life in O'Brian's writing as a character who experiences desires and passions which transport him well beyond the status of a cardboard figure.

Transgressions can give Hussein a human dimension, as when he takes credit for bringing Jehangir out of a fit of "mûsth,"[15] and later when he elaborates on the truth of the wild dog and thief-capture adventures, in both instances making himself appear more important.

Again, when the bunnia, Purun Dass, tricks him of his money, Hussein resorts to drink and attacks the priest violently while under the influence of alcohol.

Early in the book, the elephant known as Muhammad Akbar, who worked with both Hussein's grandfather and father, grieves so deeply over the deaths of the two men in the cholera epidemic, that he stops eating and dies.

[19] He also makes a point of telling Jehangir he is leaving but will return, and taking comfort that the elephant understands him, when he must flee to escape the vengeance of Kadir Baksh's family.

[22] O'Brian describes their reunion as ...a scene that could not have been surpassed if the elephant had been a bride and Hussein a delayed bridegroom, just arrived in safety from the wars.

[23] Jehangir is seen as capable of making reasoned decisions, as when he considers whether an old yogi is a threat to Hussein[24] and when he breaks his chains and kidnaps the beaten, sleeping youth.

Patrick O'Brian's biographer, Dean King, calls this review "most notable for the fact that this important literary newspaper noticed the book at all.

"[32] In the United States The Times printed a review by Percy Hutchinson which called Hussein "a gorgeous entertainment not only in the story which it unfolds but also in the manner of the telling.

"[12] The reviewer of the New York Herald Tribune, Thomas Sugrue, wrote that Hussein "turned out as fortunately as Ben Franklin's attempt to catch lightning in a jar.

"[12] In another contemporary American notice, the 9 July issue of the Saturday Review of Literature called it "excellent entertainment for a thousand and second Arabian Night.

After its reprint, David Sexton wrote in the Evening Standard, Here fully thirty years before Master and Commander was published is the unmistakable texture of O'Brian's historical fiction.

Hussein has it all: the immersion in another world, full of local colour, the delight in a specialised vocabulary, the relish of male camaraderie, travel, treasure and fighting.

[34]The Kirkus UK review states, "the reader can feel that joy in the drive and power of the writing, which, although almost incredibly exuberant is full of invention and fire that sweeps disbelief aside with the conviction of story telling.