A Passage to India

E. M. Forster’s novel of Chandrapore, a city in British India, where a young Muslim doctor, Aziz, befriends two newly arrived Englishwomen and arranges an outing for them to the nearby Marabar Caves.

Start reading38 chapters, about 101,000 words

Famous quotes

• Except for the Marabar Caves⁠—and they are twenty miles off⁠—the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary.

  Part I: Mosque, Chapter IIn context

• Adventures do occur, but not punctually.

  Ch. 3In context

  • Time

• God has put us on earth to love our neighbours and to show it, and He is omnipresent, even in India, to see how we are succeeding.

  Part I: Mosque, Chapter VIn context

  • God
  • Love

• A mystery is only a high-sounding term for a muddle.

  Part I: Mosque, Chapter VIIIn context

  • Philosophy

• Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence.

  Part II: Caves, Chapter XIVIn context

  • Life & Death
  • Writing

• Pathos, piety, courage⁠—they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.

  Part II: Caves, Chapter XIVIn context

  • Philosophy

• But suddenly, at the edge of her mind, Religion appeared, poor little talkative Christianity, and she knew that all its divine words from “Let there be Light” to “It is finished” only amounted to “boum.”

  Part II: Caves, Chapter XIVIn context

  • Christianity
  • Faith

Contents

1. Dedication

Part I: Mosque

1. Chapter I
2. Chapter II
3. Chapter III
4. Chapter IV
5. Chapter V
6. Chapter VI
7. Chapter VII
8. Chapter VIII
9. Chapter IX
10. Chapter X
11. Chapter XI

Part II: Caves

1. Chapter XII
2. Chapter XIII
3. Chapter XIV
4. Chapter XV
5. Chapter XVI
6. Chapter XVII
7. Chapter XVIII
8. Chapter XIX
9. Chapter XX
10. Chapter XXI
11. Chapter XXII
12. Chapter XXIII
13. Chapter XXIV
14. Chapter XXV
15. Chapter XXVI
16. Chapter XXVII
17. Chapter XXVIII
18. Chapter XXIX
19. Chapter XXX
20. Chapter XXXI
21. Chapter XXXII

Part III: Temple

1. Chapter XXXIII
2. Chapter XXXIV
3. Chapter XXXV
4. Chapter XXXVI
5. Chapter XXXVII