Travelers [Paperback]

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1977

In Travelers, Jhabvala examines the unlikely convergence of four wanderers: Asha, an imperious Indian widow, Raymond, a curious Englishman, Lee, an American looking for her spiritual core, and Gopi, an impressionable young student. With a mixture of impassioned dialogue and subtle narrative, Jhabvala examines the psychological and cultural forces that wend their paths into inextricable knots of love and conflict.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born of Polish parents in Cologne, Germany. She moved to England with her family in 1939. In 1951 she married Indian architect C.S.H. Jhabvala and moved with him to India. Jhabvala is the author of twelve novels, including Heat and Dust, which was awarded Britain's prestigious Booker Prize. She is a MacArthur Fellow and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A talented screenwriter, Jhabvala has earned two Academy Awards (A Room With a View and Howards End) with her work for Merchant-Ivory Productions. She is currently preparing a screen adaptation of The Golden Bowl. Jhabvala and her husband divide their time between Delhi and New York. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (January 1, 1977)
• ISBN-10: 0060804327
• ISBN-13: 978-0060804329
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,457,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No Merchant-Ivory writing here..., April 27, 2001

By 

"edwartell" (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Travelers (Paperback)

at least not in the usual sense. The Merchant-Ivory team, which made movies like Remains Of The Day, used to make movies about India. Jhabvala, of course, has written all of the team's movies, and a fair helping of fiction as well. This dates back to the early days of Merchant-Ivory (1973).

Two of the titular travelers are westerners who have come to India, one for apparently no reason other than to relax, and one to experience enlightment. They are offset by two Indians. The paths of all four quickly intertwine.

This is a book about two things. On the one hand, it's a meticulous character study. On the other hand, it's all about westerners interfering with other cultures. It's a time capsule look at what the Beatles wrought in the wake of their visit to India. It's engrossing, well-written (simple and straighforward, no flowery metaphors), and, to a certain extent, it's history.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's Been Awhile, But..., July 14, 2001

By 

Travis Hogbin (Petersburg, WV USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Travelers (Paperback)

It's been over a year since I completed this book. I originally picked it up at my local bookstore when I was in need of reading material for a bus trip to Florida. Since the book was about India and was by a rather esteemed author, I bought it. I started reading the book during the nighttime portion of my bus trip and was reluctant to put it down when everyone wanted to sleep. I found myself wanting to take my time with the book. It carried a wonderful message and I was very happy with my choice.

It ultimately took me almost two months to finish the book. I would put it down, pick it up - repeat cycle...but when I finished I felt oddly...gratified. Mind you, I didn't keep putting the book down because I was dissatisfied. Instead, it was due to what I said above - I wanted to draw out my experience with it.

I highly recommend this book and anything by Ruth Jhabvala. She has a true flare for her characters and the surroundings of India. This book was lyrically beautiful - and the character of Gopi, no matter how annoying he may seem, will win you over in the end. Enjoy!

5.0 out of 5 stars Eternal India, December 28, 2011

By 

sema4dogz (Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Travelers (Paperback)

I just re-read Travelers ( I had actually sent for it mistake, not realising that it was a later title for A New Dominion!) Anyway, not a problem, rather, it was a pleasure as I rediscovered it.

I have loved everything Jhabvala wrote , and this is no exception .Perhaps it is because I'm not Indian, and neither is Jhabvala that I find her accounts of Indian life so completely compelling. I spent less than a year ago in India, many years ago now but the impressions left and the power of the country have never left me . As with most of Jhabvala's Indian travelers, no-one one lives in and leaves India unchanged - love or it hate it, usually both.

Travelers follows the travels , both internal and physical, of a disparate group of people whose lives commingle for a season or so , maybe more , it is not really clear ( or important) .

First is Raymond the youngish Englishman , Cambridge educated, cultured, of the social group whose ancestors were the British Raj 'on the ground'. Raymond's love for India is inseparable from his love for Gopi, a young middle class Indian of the type Jhabvala does so well. Apparently destined to an arranged marriage, and yet thinking himself modern and free, Gopi is Raymond's Nemesis.

As Swamiji is Lee's - and Margaret's, and Evie's and all the other disciples in his desert 'ashram ' of brick hutments, roofed with tin, in a burning wasteland where at night only jackals can be heard.

And what of Asha, highly-born aging beauty and voluptuary, caught between desire for Gopi and desire to return home to innocence. These and Bulbul the maid, Banubai the Great Mother , and the inimitable Miss Charlotte, thirty odd years in India, working in the poorest conditions and with the poorest of the poor , asked to leave as her work now deemed imperialist charity and not fit for modern India........

Jhabvala has all these lives intertwine, making a it one of those book which you put down at the end , sorry to have finished it and in a mood of deep reflection . All this, and it's funny in places too!