Product Description

After a mysterious accident during their visit to the caves, Dr Assiz is accused of assaulting Adela Quested, a naive young Englishwoman. As he is brought to trial, the fragile structure of Anglo-Indian relations collapses and the racism inherent in colonialism is exposed in all its ugliness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #366156 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellently complex in themes and ideas......A GREAT READ!!!
I read this book as it was recommended to me by a friend. Usually, if he hates a book, I am almost certain to love it.....so I gave this a try.

Having finished this book, I gotta say, I was soooo shocked by my friend's dismissiveness of this book! His criticisms were many: He found the narrative style rather inconsequential and obscure. He thought the plot was practically non-existant and poorly constructed and that Forster didn't explore sufficiently the consequences of the caves incident on Anglo-Indian relaions.

I quite disagree with him on nearly all of these aspects.

This novel is spiritually motivated NOT political, as the synopsis above suggests. Admittedly, to some extent it's the study of the ultimate divisions between different races- English vs. Indians in general, Hindus vs. Muslims etc.

BUT to a greater extent, it is a study of the strength and will of the Indian earth. The Indian earth is personified throughout this novel to enforce that SHE is the essential idea behind this novel. This is where the narrative structure is important....the cyclical motifs which permeate the novel, i.e. "mosque, caves, mosque, caves....is the cycle to start again?" along with the idea of the cycle of nature (created by the description of the sky in the first and last chapters) act as subliminal indicators to re-enforce the dominance of the Indian earth over all that happens.

This is why we never find out what actually did happen to Adela and Mrs. Moore during the caves incident; It doesn't matter. What matters is that both these women suffered a spiritual assault at the hands of the Indian earth in the Marabar caves. Both women's need to to pin down, name and label every aspect of India catches them off guard. As Forster's authorial voice tells us repeatedly throughout the novel, India has "a hundred voices". India is a "mystery and a muddle". She is full of paradoxes, contradictions and mysteries which could never be labelled or understood by anyone. On going into the caves, both women see that India cannot be generalised or her mysteries solved. This assaults Adela's sense of logic and Mrs. Moore loses her faith in the all controlling Christian God as she realises that India pre-dates this God. As a result, both women come out defeated.

In fact, the very fact that what happened remains a mystery is cenntral to re-inforcing the idea that we can never pin down or explain the Indian earth. She is a mystery!

In the end, it is not the political divisions between the English and Indians which prevent Aziz and Fielding from being friends, it is ultimately the Indian earth which stands in their way:
"the earth didn't want it, sending up rocks through which riders must pass single file". This is the idea with which this novel ends, thereby highlighting it's importance: It is the Indian earth who gets the last word.

Therefore, this novel is not merely about politics. It is a complex and well stitched novel that uses well chosen themes, ideas and motifs to re-iterate what is essentially important: India.

Although this book is immensely satisfying to understand and to appreciate, I must warn you that it is also very difficult to do so! Without first understanding fully the ideas I've written about briefly, it may seem very obscure and inconsequential to read. I can only recommend it to people who are in for a challenge!!