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Eclectic outpourings as books pass through

2006/11/17

A Passage to India

@ 06:47 PM (21 months, 29 days ago)

A Passage to India by E M Forster

An elegant evocation of British India and the racial tensions which divide the colonizer from the colonised. Miss Quested, a young English woman in India for the first time, suggests that she may have been attacked by an ingratiating India during an outing laid on to please her. Amid the outpouring of racial distrust which her accusation sparks, the voices of reason and sense, and even her own doubts as to what actually happened, are completely lost. An Englishman becomes an outcast from his own for speaking in defence of an India and a kindly woman is rejected by her family for of speaking her truth rather than that of the British Raj. The events that follow, demonstrate Forster's view of the impossibility of friendships across racial divides; of unifying India as a single nation and of the duration of the British Raj.

Forster brings his own perspective to 'the India question; and is deeply critical of the British position. But this is not a one sided novel: it exposes uncomfortable truthes regarding India as much as it does uncomfortable truthes of Empire and Oppression.

Comment(s) »

  1. The triad of great twentieth century novels: PASSAGE TO INDIA; ULYSSES; JOURNEY TO THE END OF NIGHT. Each in their own unique way explores the theme of alienation and the inability of modern man and woman to communicate. Becket once nominated JOURNEY for "the greatest novel of the century", and when asked about ULYSSES, he replied "No, Joyce is for all time!"

    Comment by Lover of Angels— 2006/11/18 @ 02:31 PM — (Reply)

  2. Thank you for this: I can see the connections with Ulysses - although I have to sau I struggled far more in reading that than I did with Passage to India! But Journey to the End of the Night I have just about heard about but never read. I shall seek out a copy. Thank you.

    Comment by Jessica— 2006/11/22 @ 12:51 PM — (Reply)

  3. You're welcome. Celine is, along with Joyce, the father of the modern novel. You see his imprint from Heller to Burroughs. Start with JOURNEY, and then try the "EXILE TRILOGY" (NORTH, RIGADOON, CASTLE TO CASTLE), all translated by the late Ralph Mannheim (who also did Gunter Grass), one of the finest translators who ever drew breath.

    Comment by Lover of Angels— 2006/11/22 @ 01:10 PM — (Reply)

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