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In this hard-hitting novel, first published in 1924, the murky personal relationship between an Englishwoman and an Indian doctor mirrors the troubled politics of colonialism. Adela Quested and her fellow British travelers, eager to experience the "real" India, develop a friendship with the urbane Dr. Aziz. While on a group outing, Adela and Dr. Aziz visit the Marabar caves together. As they emerge, Adela accuses the doctor of assaulting her. While Adela never actually claims she was raped, the decisions she makes ostracize her from both her countrymen and the natives, setting off a complex chain of events that forever changes the lives of all involved. This intense and moving story asks the listener serious questions about preconceptions regarding race, sex, religion, and truth. A political and philosophical masterpiece.… (more)
FemmeNoiresque: Scott's The Raj Quartet, and particularly the relationship between Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar in the first novel, The Jewel In The Crown, is a revisioning of the charge of rape made by Adela Quested to Dr Aziz. Race, class and empire are explored in the aftermath of this event, in WWII India.… (more)
I finished my first book of the year, begun late in 2024 in a desperate attempt to complete my bingo card. I picked A Passage to India by E. M. Forster from Project Gutenberg because it had just the title and author on the cover. That is more unusual than you would think as even the simplest cover has some embellishment, the logo of the publishing house or a decorative square around the title.
The book was fascinating and a great read to start the year. Forster uses India as a setting and a character with rich descriptions of both physical and metaphorical landscapes. At one point, the main character, a Muslim doctor, comments to himself that is finally a complete Indian, one that loves his country and sees the British for the invaders that they are. The themes of class, gender and oppression form a foundation for the novel from its opening pages.
I was confused now and then by references to British and Indian items and customs that may have been familiar to Forster's audience but I could get by on the context mostly.
The book was published in 1924, and it took 23 more years for India to achieve independence. ( )
The Passage to India transported me to India as I read. It is a collision of cultures and a clash of religions. The author paints a picture of colonial India and the behavior of the British, which is fascinating. I felt despair on behalf of the main character and intense frustration and dislike of the ruling British. Failure to understand the Indian way of life was the key to hostility between the ruling and the ruled. ( )
I wasn't sure what rating I was going to give this book until the very final chapter. Honestly, I wasn't sure that I really liked the book until the final two chapters. This was a good story, well-written, wonderful characterizations and a slow, slow burn for me. The friendship between Dr. Aziz and Mr. Fielding was perfection with the competing cultures mingling in each of them and representing the conflict of British rule in India. Mrs. Moore was a tremendous character in that she was a spiritual being who understood and embodied both sides of the equation. The fact that this book was written in 1924 and isn't racist is somewhat astounding. I'm glad that I read it. ( )
I wanted to get into this book, I really did. It is well written, but stylistically it's just not my cuppa tea. Perhaps if I were British I would understand more of the subtleties of class displayed, but frankly the continual conversational iron fist of racism in a velvet glove that was British colonialism just got overwhelming. I made it better than halfway, perhaps I'll try to catch the movie to make some sense of it. ( )
To Syed Ross Masood and to the seventeen years of our friendship
First words
Except for the Marabar caves—and they are twenty miles off—the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary.
The India described in A Passage to India no longer exists either politically or socially. (Prefatory Note)
Perhaps it is chance, more than any peculiar devotion, that determines a man in his choice of medium, when he finds himself possessed by an obscure impulse towards creation. (Introduction)
Quotations
"We must exclude someone from our gathering, or we shall be left with nothing."
Last words
But the horses didn't want it—they swerved apart; the earth didn't want it, sending up rock through which riders must pass single file; the temples, the tanks, the jail, the palace, the birds, the carrion, the Guest House, that came into view as they issued from the gap and saw Mau beneath: they didn't want it, they said in their hundred voices "No, not yet," and the sky said, "No, not there."
I my also mention here that The Hill of Devi (an autobiographical work published in 1953) contains some of the material utilized in the final section of the novel. (Prefatory Note)
It is possible that the mind which saw so visionarily the significance of Stephen, and which could tell the Wilcoxes that 'nothing has been done wrong', has achieved their own wisdom; that the organism, being perfectly adjusted, is silent. (Introduction)
In this hard-hitting novel, first published in 1924, the murky personal relationship between an Englishwoman and an Indian doctor mirrors the troubled politics of colonialism. Adela Quested and her fellow British travelers, eager to experience the "real" India, develop a friendship with the urbane Dr. Aziz. While on a group outing, Adela and Dr. Aziz visit the Marabar caves together. As they emerge, Adela accuses the doctor of assaulting her. While Adela never actually claims she was raped, the decisions she makes ostracize her from both her countrymen and the natives, setting off a complex chain of events that forever changes the lives of all involved. This intense and moving story asks the listener serious questions about preconceptions regarding race, sex, religion, and truth. A political and philosophical masterpiece.
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Haiku summary
Grottes de Marabar/Mrs Moore à la mosquée/et l'Inde des Anglais/(tiercelin)
British and native / In the dark of Marabar / Neighbours, yet distant
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The book was fascinating and a great read to start the year. Forster uses India as a setting and a character with rich descriptions of both physical and metaphorical landscapes. At one point, the main character, a Muslim doctor, comments to himself that is finally a complete Indian, one that loves his country and sees the British for the invaders that they are. The themes of class, gender and oppression form a foundation for the novel from its opening pages.
I was confused now and then by references to British and Indian items and customs that may have been familiar to Forster's audience but I could get by on the context mostly.
The book was published in 1924, and it took 23 more years for India to achieve independence. (