A Passage to India

This is an excellent novel, which is not surprising as it has received numerous honors including being included in the Modern Library's 100 best novels list. It is the story of Dr. Aziz who is arrested on what proves to be a false allegation by a British woman. The people who are involved in Aziz's world and the ways that they react to each other and to India under British rule give the story its depth and dimension. The writing is clear and modern and frequently beautiful. There is also a lot of philosophical observation mixed in.

"In Europe life retreats out of the cold, and exquisite fireside myths have resulted--Balder, Persephone--but here the retreat is from the source of life, the treacherous sun, and no poetry adorns it because disillusionment cannot be beautiful. Men yearn for poetry thought they may not confess it; they desire that joy shall be graceful and sorrow august and infinity have a form, and India fails to accommodate them. The annual helter-skelter of April, when irritability and lust spread like a canker, is one of her comments on the orderly hopes of humanity. Fish manage better; fish, as the tanks dry, wriggle into the mud and wait for the rains to uncake them. But men try to be harmonious all the year round, and results are occasionally disastrous." (p.210-211)

E. M. Forster was born in England and published only 5 novels in his lifetime. A Passage to India (1924) was the last of these. It was written 20+ years before India achieved independence. 

What is Modernism?

As part of Modern March I wanted to get a handle on what it means for a work to be "modern." The article at The Literature Network was quite helpful, though it has a lot of pop-ups.  The wikipedia article on Modernist Literature was also helpful.

• The art and literature of the early 20th century
• A response to the horror and upheaval of the "great war," and the world war that followed it
• A period of literary and artistic introspection
• A conscious rejection of the traditions of the past that strove to reflect a new reality
• A reaction to the restrictions of Victorian society and the excesses of Victorian art
• A movement that included the authentic voices of women and minorities
• A sparse style of language with a focus on images
• A period of experimentation with form and a desire to make work that was new

Among the big names of the period are T.S. Elliot, James Joyce, E. M. Forster, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, and Virginia Woolf.

A Modern March

A Literary Odyssey is hosting a Modern March to encourage reading of modernist writers. I have several of these titles on my reading list for Classics Club, so I am signing up to participate and will commit to reading at least one of these titles during March 2013.

Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway 
Dubliners, James Joyce

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf