What is the author's style in The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott?

Scott shifts point of view frequently in "The Jewel in the Crown," presenting differing viewpoints and alternate versions of the same central events as seen through the eyes of the various characters.

Some passages of the novel are presented in a traditional narrative fashion, with the narrator acting as an omniscient presence describing the thoughts and actions of a character. The story of Edwina Crane and portions of Hari Kumar's story are presented in this way, for example.

Much of the remainder of the novel is told in the characters' own words in a documentary style as if they are speaking or writing to a specific individual. The fictitious audience for much of the characters' recollections is an unseen and unnamed visitor to Mayapore some ten years following the main events of the book.

With the exception of a few letters written by Hari Kumar and Daphne Manners, most of the "documentary" information is presented as memories a good time after the fact. The characters are removed from the events by a decade in time and have had time to reflect and place the events within a larger context. The result is a mixture of the reflective point of view of these witnesses to the event and the more immediate and reactive point of view of the two main characters who lived through them.