Excerpt provided by Syndetics

What really happened in the Marabar caves? Adela Quested arrives in Chandrapore, India, prepared to marry a British magistrate who exemplifies the narrow-minded, anti-Indian prejudices of the imperial bureaucracy. But she soon meets the charming and mercurial Dr. Aziz, who offers to show her the "real" India. An expedition to the famed Marabar caves ends in explosive accusations and a schism that foreshadows the eventual end of British rule in India. Sam Dastor brilliantly evokes the Indian scenes and accents that make this story so intriguing. Excerpted from A Passage to India by E. M. Forster All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Finally, the audio generation has access to a magnificent edition of Forster's (Where Angels Fear To Tread, Audio Reviews, LJ 5/1/93) most popular novel, a book that is also regarded as his masterpiece. Adela Quested arrives in colonial India to marry Ronny Heaslop, a narrow-minded bureaucrat who despises Indians. She teams up with Ron's mother, Mrs. Moor, and Dr. Aziz, a charming native, to see the "real" India, but an incident exposes sharp tensions in the imperialist system. Forster is highly sensitive to the differences among Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. Despite the serious topic and the author's pessimism about bridging cultures, A Passage to India is a comic, even witty, novel. Moreover, reader Sam Dastor has given us a tour de force in his mastery of the various accents and his true dramatic flair. Adults both young and old will find much pleasure in this English classic.-James L. Dudley, Copiague, N.Y.(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up-By E.M. Forster. Narrated by Flo Gibson. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Edward Morgan Forster was born on January 1, 1879, in London, England. He never knew his father, who died when Forster was an infant. Forster graduated from King's College, Cambridge, with B.A. degrees in classics (1900) and history (1901), as well as an M.A. (1910). In the mid-1940s he returned to Cambridge as a professor, living quietly there until his death in 1970. Forster was named to the Order of Companions of Honor to the Queen in 1953.

Forster's writing was extensively influenced by the traveling he did in the earlier part of his life. After graduating from Cambridge, he lived in both Greece and Italy, and used the latter as the setting for the novels Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and A Room with a View (1908). The Longest Journey was published in 1907. Howard's End was modeled on the house he lived in with his mother during his childhood. During World War I, he worked as a Red Cross Volunteer in Alexandria, aiding in the search for missing soldiers; he later wrote about these experiences in the nonfiction works Alexandria: A History and Guide and Pharos and Pharillon. His two journeys to India, in 1912 and 1922, resulted in A Passage to India (1924), which many consider to be Forster's best work; this title earned the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Forster wrote only six novels, all prior to 1925 (although Maurice was not published until 1971, a year after Forster's death, probably because of its homosexual theme). For much of the rest of his life, he wrote literary criticism (Aspects of the Novel) and nonfiction, including biographies (Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson), histories, political pieces, and radio broadcasts.

Howard's End, A Room with a View, and A Passage to India have all been made into successful films.

(Bowker Author Biography)