What really happened in the Marabar caves? This is the mystery at the heart of E.M. Forster's 1924 novel, A Passage to India, the puzzle that sets in motion events highlighting an even larger question: Can an Englishman and an Indian be friends? "It is impossible here," an Indian character tells his friend, Dr. Aziz, early in the novel.
Arguably Forster's greatest novel, A Passage to India limns a troubling portrait of colonialism at its worst, and is remarkable for the complexity of its characters. Here the personal becomes the political and in the breach between Aziz and his English "friends," Forster foreshadows the eventual end of the Raj.
It is listed at #25 of Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th century.
Read an original review from 1924 at The Guardian.
Have you read this classic (anything else by Forster)?
