Skip to product information
1 of 1

Booksforcancerkw

The Journey Homeward- Gerald Hanley

The Journey Homeward- Gerald Hanley

Regular price 1.500 KWD
Regular price Sale price 1.500 KWD
Sale Sold out

ThIs NovEL will inevitably be compared with

B. M. Forster's A Passage to India. Gerald Hanley takes the same basic theme the gulf between the mind and spirit of East and West

-and relates it to an Indian state embarking on her own independent destiny.

The setting is a small mountain state, Jashimpur, to which its new maharajah, Prabhu, has just returned with his wife and two young sons after a long residence in England. He means to rule well, and raise his people from their economic and moral degradation by a system of up-to-date reforms. Unfortunately, his ideas have little appeal or meaning for a

30°

people formed by a past which has left them passive, sceptical, cowardly and vastly amused by their own shortcomings. Unfortunately also, Prabhu, like his wife Lila, and his brother Prem, have acquired, along with their Western notions, the habit of drink as a refuge from unwelcome reality: Lila in particular, who, fecling herself English, hates her brown skin yet cannot square her life either with her Christian upbringing or her love affair with an English soldier. But if Prabhu fails, so does his chief adversary, Hassan, because he too was formed by the West-in his case America

-and though he mocks at Prabhu's idealism and will settle for nothing less than revolution by violence, the people, by nature fearful of violence, in turn mock at him. Only Hari Lal, shrewdly rooted in the ancient Indian instinct for self-denial, seems able to point the way towards which power must lead.

These are but the bare bones of a situation vast in its implications but made urgent and vivid by the novelist's art. It is a masterpiece of story-telling suffused with the humour and tenderness arising out of the author's deep love and knowledge of India and her people.

Jacket design by Harry Toothill

Materials

Shipping & Returns

Dimensions

Care Instructions

View full details

Image with text

Pair text with an image to focus on your chosen product, collection, or blog post. Add details on availability, style, or even provide a review.

  • Free Shipping

    Pair text with an image to focus on your chosen product, collection, or blog post. Add details on availability, style, or even provide a review.

  • Hassle-Free Exchanges

    Pair text with an image to focus on your chosen product, collection, or blog post. Add details on availability, style, or even provide a review.