APassageToIndia

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Novel by E. M. Forster, looking at the social interactions of the English and Indians at the height of the Raj. Plot focuses on the charming Indian Dr. Aziz, and his friendships with several of the more free-thinking English, notably the schoolteacher Fielding, old and kindly Mrs Moore and the young upper-class lady Adela Quested.

For those wondering about how good the book is: I wrote a 3000 word essay on it in my 5th year at Secondary School (Lower 6th, to all you A-Level people), probably reading the book 7 or so times in the process. I've re-read it at least twice since, and I still really enjoy it.

I find this quote explains an awful lot of human relations today:

: In our Father's house are many mansions, they taught, and there alone will all the incompatible multitudes of mankind be welcomed and soothed. No one should be turned away by the servants on that veranda, be he black or white, not one shall be kept standing who approached with a loving heart. Why should divine hospitality cease here? Consider, with all reverence, the monkeys. May there not be a mansion for the monkeys also? Old Mr. Graysford said No, but young Mr. Sorley, who was advanced, said Yes; he saw no reason why monkeys should not have their collateral share of bliss, and he had sympathetic discussions about them with his Hindu friends. And the jackals? Jackals were indeed less to Mr. Sorley's mind, but he admitted that the mercy of God, being infinite, may well embrace all mammals. And the wasps? He became uneasy during the descent to wasps, and was apt to change the conversation. And oranges, cactuses, crystals and mud? and the bacteria inside Mr. Sorely? No, no, this is going too far. We must exclude someone from our gathering, or we shall be left with nothing.

CategoryNovel