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  • Published: 18 April 2019
  • ISBN: 9781787533509
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 2 hr 18 min
  • RRP: $12.99

A Passage to India




Based on the classic novel by E M Forster, this epic full-cast drama is set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian Independence movement during the 1920s.

Based on the classic novel by E M Forster, this epic full-cast drama is set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian Independence movement during the 1920s.

When Adela Quested and her 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. Through them, Aziz becomes friends with Cyril Fielding.

But a mysterious incident occurs when Aziz accompanies the women to explore the Marabar Caves, 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. The consequences affect everyone, and threaten Aziz and Fielding's friendship.

Exploring issues of colonialism, faith and the limits of comprehension, the story begins and ends by posing a question: in this context, is it possible for an Englishman and an Indian to be friends?

  • Published: 18 April 2019
  • ISBN: 9781787533509
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 2 hr 18 min
  • RRP: $12.99

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About the author

E. M. Forster

Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879, attended Tonbridge School as a day boy, and went on to King's College, Cambridge, in 1897. With King's he had a lifelong connection and was elected to an Honorary Fellowship in 1946. He declared that his life as a whole had not been dramatic, and he was unfailingly modest about his achievements. Interviewed by the BBC on his eightieth birthday, he said: 'I have not written as much as I'd like to... I write for two reasons: partly to make money and partly to win the respect of people whom I respect... I had better add that I am quite sure I am not a great novelist.' Eminent critics and the general public have judged otherwise and in his obituary The Times called him 'one of the most esteemed English novelists of his time'.

He wrote six novels, four of which appeared before the First World War, Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), and Howard's End (1910). An interval of fourteen years elapsed before he published A Passage to India. It won both the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Maurice, his novel on a homosexual theme, finished in 1914, was published posthumously in 1971. He also published two volumes of short stories; two collections of essays; a critical work, Aspects of the Novel; The Hill of Devi, a fascinating record of two visits Forster made to the Indian State of Dewas Senior; two biographies; two books about Alexandria (where he worked for the Red Cross in the First World War); and, with Eric Crozier, the libretto for Britten's opera Billy Budd. He died in June 1970.

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