A Passage To India: E.M. Forster (Penguin Essentials, 47) - Softcover

Exploring issues of colonialism, faith and the limits of comprehension, E.M. Forster's A Passage to India is published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.

When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced 'Anglo-Indian' community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves with Aziz, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal that rouses violent passions among both the British and their Indian subjects. A masterly portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India compellingly depicts the fate of individuals caught between the great political and cultural conflicts of the modern world.

'His great book ... masterly in its presence and its lucidity'
Anita Desai

'Only in the south, where a group of fists and fingers thrust up through the soil, is the endless expanse interrupted. These fists and fingers are the Marabar Hills, containing the extraordinary caves . . .'

Adela Quested has come to the Indian town of Chandrapore to marry. Together with her elderly companion Mrs Moore, they befriend the charming Dr Aziz, who offers to show them the Marabar Caves.

However, while exploring the caves, an incident occurs which leads to accusations and the arrest of Dr Aziz. As the doctor awaits trial, the British and their Indian subjects are divided over his guilt or innocence and soon tensions threaten to erupt into violence.

'One of the most esteemed English novelists of his time' The Times