I've read a different copy of this, and I didn't enjoy it enough to want a second copy to re-read to see if I understood it any better the second time around.

This is one of those classic orange-and-white Penguin editions.

I shall offer it up as a ray for those who are reading the "1001" books.

PARTICIPANT LIST (Subject to change without notice!):

briz-cowgirl, AU
jellyfish67, UK
christina82, Denmark
tootshelling, Germany
deepdowne, U.A.E.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Popped in the post today to briz-cowgirl to start the ray. Happy reading!

Received from tqd today, thanks! Looking forward to reading this.

I am struggling a bit to get through this, I've picked it up and put it down again so many times. I will persist until the end of the month though!
Jellyfish67 is next in line for this bookring, I've sent them a PM for their address to send on, although the profile says they're on holidays until end of August...

Arrived safely yesterday

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sorry for the delay. Now on it's way to next reader. Enjoy.

Got this in the mail today. Thanks for sending this to me jellyfish67!

I have about 200 pages left in current read, before starting this one. it shouldn't take too long.

Thank you for sharing tqd.

Just finished reading the book. At first I didn't like it much. I thought it boring and not nearly as interesting as Howards End. For some reason I'm not really into stories set in India - don't know why! But as the story unfolded it got much better. With it's twist - being the supposed crime of Dr. Aziz - it ended up being quite interesting. This is however far from the best book I've read...

Thanks for sharing...! It will be on it´s way to the next reader as soon as I have an adress!

This is from the "1001 Book You Must Read Before You Die"-book:
Forster´s last novel achieves a certain seriousness not evident in his earlier works. While he represents the British in India as stuffy caricatures of prejudice, Forster does not make them into the sustained parodies that we find in Howard´s End of A Room With A View. At the heart of this liberal study of Anglo-Indian relations sits the vast emptiness of the booming Marabar caves, which Forster establishes as a site of ambiguity and uncertainty. Visitors to the caves are never sure what it is they have witnessed, if anything at all. Adele Quested, a British woman who is newly arrived in India, is accompanied to the caves by the Indian Dr. Aziz, and what happens between them there is never clearly established. Although the British assume that she was attacked by Aziz, Adele herself never confirms this. In fact, she spectaculary withdraws the allegation in court, and earns herself the opprobrium of her fellow countrymen. However, even this retraction fails to clarify the episode, which remains an examble of the inderterminacy that characterizes Forster´s modernist aesthetic.
If the rape trial is the center of the novel´s plot, the friendship between Aziz and the sympathetic British humanists, Mrs. Moore and Cyril Fielding, represents the potential for connection across national lines (a central concept in Forster´s writing). For some, he noel stands as a benevolent portrayal of the early nationalist campaign in India. Others, however, have pointedto Forster´s inability to avoid exotic fantasy in his depiction of Indians.

tootshelling asked to be skipped - I've pm the next in line...hopefully the book will be on its way soon.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book was mailed to deepdowne sometime last week...

Thanks Christina! The book arrived here today safely.
And thanks to tqd too to let this out in a ray.
Like tqd, I too have read a different copy of this, but didn't find very interesting. But maybe it's my bad mood. I wanted to try it again to see if I would like it this time or not :) (I have done it with 'A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' and liked it.)