Know Your English Literature Part. VIII

A Passage to India: Novel by E.M.Forster published in 1924 and set in India at the time of the British Raj and in which Forster examines the complex interaction of the two cultures. The events revolve around the strange experience of a young English woman, Adela Quested, in the Marabar caves. The experience- never fully explained- leads her to accuse Aziz, an Anglophile Indian, of rape. Eventually she withdraws the charge, but Aziz and many other Indians are left angry and embittered, and the British community is divided.

A Modest Proposal: Satirical pamphlet written by Jonathan Swift in 1729, suggesting the eating of children’s as a way of solving social problems in Ireland. It was written in outrage at government policy towards Ireland and at the appalling conditions in which the Irish peasantry lived.

The lady of Shallot: Poem by Tennyson based on medieval legend. It tells of a lady shut up in a tower on a river island. She is under a curse, and may only look at the world outside in a mirror. One day, hearing Sir Lancelot approach, she rushes to the window- and brings down the curse upon herself. She knows that death is near, leaves the tower and floats downstream in a boat, singing a last lament until her arrives- dead-at Camelot.

Jane Eyre: Romantic novel by Charlotte Bronte published in 1847. It describes how Jane, an orphan, becomes governess at Thornfield hall and eventually marries its intense, brooding master, Mr. Rochester.