• A Passage to India is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. Written in 1924, it deals with English colonialism in India in the early part of the 20th century.

• Plot Summary

  Two well-to-do English ladies, young Adela Quested and the older Mrs. Moore, travel to the town of Chandrapore to see the "real India," where they cross paths with the idealistic young Muslim doctor Aziz, who happily shows them around the area. Despite the usually strained nature of English-Indian colonial relations, their positive interactions cause them to question their prejudices. However, Adela makes a shocking accusation of Aziz, after an incident in the fictional Marabar Caves, suggesting that cultural and racial divides are not easily overcome.

• Legacy and Adaptations

  The book would be the last of Forster's novels to be published in his lifetime, as he would devote the rest of his career to essays and lectures. However, it received numerous prizes, and is widely considered to be his finest and most ambitious novel. It was adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1984 film by David Lean, and in 2008, a play by a Chicago theatrical company.

• Fast Facts

  1. Author: E.M. Forster
  2. Year of publication: 1924
  3. Forster's final novel
  4. He began writing it in 1913
  5. Titled after a Walt Whitman poem
  6. Winner of the [http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tait_Black_Memorial_Prize James Tait Black Memorial Prize] for fiction
  7. Ranked #25 on the [http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library Modern Library]'s list of the best English-language novels of the 20th century

• Quotes

  1. "No, it was not picturesque; the East, abandoning its secular magnificence, was descending into a valley whose farther side no man can see."
  2. "It is easy to sympathize at a distance. I value more the kind word that is spoken close to my ear."
  3. "He did not realize that 'white' has no more to do with a colour than 'God save the King' with a god, and that it is the height of impropriety to consider what it does connote."

• Related Mahalo Pages

  E. M. Forster | Howard's End | Midnight's Children | A Bend in the River | Salman Rushdie | India | India Vacations | Indian Authors and Writers | England | A Room with a View

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