In Search of Love and Beauty [Paperback]

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1992

Through a rich mosaic of episodes, shifting intricately back and forth from the 1930s to the present day, the lives of three generations are traced. Linked by the incessant longing for inner fulfilment, grandmother, mother, son and daughter pursue their selfish quests by very different routes. Yet each is drawn, either by love or by hate, to the magnetic Leo Kellermann, former Adonis, guru, charlatan/genius and founder of the dubious Academy of Potential Development.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Brilliantly readable' -- Auberon Waugh, Daily Mail 'The scenes are so precisely balanced and counterpoised that each enriches and illuminates' -- Listener Praise for her previous work: 'A writer of genius ! a writer of world class -- a master storyteller' -- Sunday Times 'Each work has her hallmark of balance, subtlety, wry humor and beauty' -- New York Times Book Review 'Among the best fiction written about the country since A Passage to India' -- Observer 'Deliciously comic' -- Daily Telegraph 'Her tussle with India is one of the richest treats of contemporary literature' -- Guardian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Germany of Polish parents and came to England in 1939 at the age of twelve. She graduated from Queen Mary College, London University, and married the Indian architect C.S.H. Jhabvala. They lived in Delhi from 1951 to 1975. Since then they have divided their time between Delhi, New York and London. As well as her numerous novels and short stories, in collaboration with James Ivory and Ismail Merchant Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has written scripts for film and television, including A Room with a View and Howards End, both of which are Academy Award winners. She won the Booker Prize for Heat and Dust in 1975, the Neil Gunn International Fellowship in 1978, the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1984 and was made a CBE in the 1998 New Year's Honours List. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Touchstone Books (April 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671747398
• ISBN-13: 978-0671747398
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,844,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Gem of a Book, June 10, 2011

By 

Kumar Ganesh (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of Love and Beauty (Paperback)

Absolutely love this work. The captivating prose just draws you into other lives and other places like the shifting bits of a kaleidoscope. A writer of enormous talent, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala can somehow make you feel that you know a character well with a deft and economical word sketch. Scenes appear so realistically in the mind's eye that one feels that it could never have happened any other way. There is not the least bit of spare fat or padding in her writing. The lack of a strong plot does not matter in the least when even the most mundane detail -- a hat, the cry of a baby or a hair-cut-- is rendered interesting from the poetry of her description. This is a book for those who love the sheer beauty of words, a book like shimmering silk which catches the light and leaves you gasping.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Scatty, June 2, 2007

By 

a reader "dendera" (Gloucester MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of Love and Beauty (Paperback)

If you find this book mediocre or bad, jump to her master-piece Heat and Dust -concise but intuitive,wry humour and believable characters.But what happened here?It's awful.The main character,Leo Kellermann is a charmer/manipulator but the author makes him shallow and devoid of personality from the start so it just wasn't convincing that he could weave people round his little finger which seemed important if he was going to catalse important themes in the book.The story didn't feel like it had any flow or direction as though she was writing in snippets and i lost interest early on.

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars boring!!, August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: In Search of Love and Beauty (Paperback)

This books drags and is incredibly pointless and boring. It took all my strength to just finish this book.