A Passage to India
1 journaler for this copy...
This book was a choice by my Secret Santa on LibraryThing. Great choice because I've wanted to read it for a long time.
I'm not sure why I never read this book before. I've enjoyed other books by Forster and I have always liked books set in India. For whatever reason I had not read this and it was with delight that I received it from my SecretSanta on LibraryThing. It is on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list and with this book done I have read 300 books from the list.
Forster sets this book in the fictional city of Chandrapore in northern India with a small colonial outpost. The time is the early 20th century when the British raj was very much in control of the country. The British people socialize with other British people with very few exceptions. So when Adela Quested, visiting India with the purpose of seeing if Ronnie Heaslop is suitable marriage material, expresses a wish to see the "real India" she is greeted with some disdain. Miss Quested was escorted to India by Heaslop's mother, Mrs. Moore, who would also like to meet some Indians. In fact, while she was taking a breath of air from a theatrical performance at the club she met Dr. Aziz, a medical doctor who is widowed and has three children. Mrs. Moore is also a widow and also has three children, Ronnie from her first marriage and another boy and girl from her second. Mrs. Moore is desirous of seeing all her children settled, starting with Ronnie. When Dr. Aziz proposes a visit to the nearby Marabar caves to show Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested the "real India" it proves to be a defining moment in all their lives. Dr. Aziz is charged with sexually assaulting Miss Quested. Did he do so? Or did their local guide assault her? Or did Miss Quested, upset by the strange echoes in the caves, imagine the whole affair? The only non-Indian who believes Dr. Aziz when he says he is innocent is Mr. Fielding, the Principal of the Government College. His support of Aziz drives a wedge between him and the other colonials. Years later when Aziz and Fielding meet again, Aziz (who thinks that Fielding married Miss Quested when he went back to England) spurns his offer of a renewal of their friendship. When he discovers that Fielding married Mrs. Moore's daughter, not Miss Quested, he realizes that he has allowed the whole Chandrapore experience to darken his life. He is even willing to write to Miss Quested to tell her he forgives her.
I would be really interested to know if modern day Indians have read this book and what they think of it. Forster is very supportive of the Indians and critical of the British rule of India. On the other hand, he is of the colonizing race and there is now a feeling that the people who were the object of colonization should tell their own stories.
Forster sets this book in the fictional city of Chandrapore in northern India with a small colonial outpost. The time is the early 20th century when the British raj was very much in control of the country. The British people socialize with other British people with very few exceptions. So when Adela Quested, visiting India with the purpose of seeing if Ronnie Heaslop is suitable marriage material, expresses a wish to see the "real India" she is greeted with some disdain. Miss Quested was escorted to India by Heaslop's mother, Mrs. Moore, who would also like to meet some Indians. In fact, while she was taking a breath of air from a theatrical performance at the club she met Dr. Aziz, a medical doctor who is widowed and has three children. Mrs. Moore is also a widow and also has three children, Ronnie from her first marriage and another boy and girl from her second. Mrs. Moore is desirous of seeing all her children settled, starting with Ronnie. When Dr. Aziz proposes a visit to the nearby Marabar caves to show Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested the "real India" it proves to be a defining moment in all their lives. Dr. Aziz is charged with sexually assaulting Miss Quested. Did he do so? Or did their local guide assault her? Or did Miss Quested, upset by the strange echoes in the caves, imagine the whole affair? The only non-Indian who believes Dr. Aziz when he says he is innocent is Mr. Fielding, the Principal of the Government College. His support of Aziz drives a wedge between him and the other colonials. Years later when Aziz and Fielding meet again, Aziz (who thinks that Fielding married Miss Quested when he went back to England) spurns his offer of a renewal of their friendship. When he discovers that Fielding married Mrs. Moore's daughter, not Miss Quested, he realizes that he has allowed the whole Chandrapore experience to darken his life. He is even willing to write to Miss Quested to tell her he forgives her.
I would be really interested to know if modern day Indians have read this book and what they think of it. Forster is very supportive of the Indians and critical of the British rule of India. On the other hand, he is of the colonizing race and there is now a feeling that the people who were the object of colonization should tell their own stories.
