English novelist E.M. Forster wrote his last and best-loved work, A Passage to India, both as a paean to his love for India and as a tribute to the relationships he formed with Indians. Forster became entranced by the India of the Raj at a young age, and his love affair with the sub-continent, its princes, and peoples, was to last all his life. At his most socially transgressive, it was with Indians that Forster chose to connect and with whom he put into effect his belief in man’s duty to value friendship over state or ideology. His time in India was undoubtedly when he was at his most human and most vulnerable. At once a contemporary reflection on India’s rich history and a biographical retelling of Forster’s travels through the country in the early 1900s, Developing the Heart delves into the past to better understand the profound impact certain events and people had on his writing. In doing so, it allows readers to look on as Forster matures and softens over time in his behaviour with others as well as with himself. Often using Forster’s own words to evoke a vivid landscape, this is the story of the most dramatic and exotic part of the life of one of England’s greatest novelists.

In Howards End , Forster remarks that the Imperialist 'hopes to inherit the earth' and with the strong temptation he has to acclaim it 'as a superyeoman, who carries his country's virtue overseas'. He then adds: 'But the Imperialist is not what he thinks or seems. He is a destroyer. He prepares the way for cosmopolitanism, and though his ambitions may be fulfilled the earth that he inherits will be grey'. This simple notion is masterly expressed in A Passage to India , which provides a rich diversity of historical contexts and implies political imperatives urging us to rethink the complex relationship between East and West not as simple confrontation but rather as deeply rooted in cultural differences far beyond the realm of imperialist sensibility. With the support of material by Forster published here for the first time, this volume explores the realm of Forster's politics and imperialism.

In The Study Of E.M. Forster S Enig¬Matic Fiction, The Author Has Attempted A Profile Of This Modern Janus, The Essence Of Whose Personality Inheres In The Subtlety Of The Hints He Drops And The Glimpses He Affords Into The Dark Recesses Of The Minds Involved In A Mysterious Universe. The Elusiveness Of His Work Produces An Art Which, Though Concrete And Tangi¬Ble, Is Punctuated By Reticences, Inter¬Spersed With Hesitations, Qualifications And Suggestions, Pregnant With Deep Meanings Like The Melodious Stirrings Of Music. The Book Is Primarily Based On The Author S Doctoral Dissertation, Ethics And Aesthetics In The Novels Of E.M. Forster. According To Dr. Singh, The Categories In Which Forster Ranges People Are Primarily Ethical; The Pattern He Imposes On Experience Is The Pattern Of His Ethical Vision. This Vision Is Fresh And Independent Affair, Its Tone Is Inquiring, Not Dogmatic. His Analysis Shows That The Aesthetic Pleasure That Forster S Novels Communicate Depends Mainly On His Gifts Of Characterization, His Mastery Of Dialogue, His Delicately Poised Irony, His Flexible Prose, And His Ingenuity In Unfolding Themes So That Each Novel Has A Meaning That Transcends The Sum Of Its Parts. The Book Enables Us To Understand E.M. Forster By Placing Him In Relation To The Thoughts Of Some Of The Leading Thinkers Of 20Th Century And The Socio¬Political Milieu Its Daring Adventures, Its Narrow Prejudices, Its Peculiar Social Norms Which Determined The Scope Of His Work. His Approach Is Refreshingly Original And He Makes Quite Perceptive Comments On The Comple¬Xity Of Forster S Art In Comparison With Henry James, D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, George Orwell And Andre Gide As Also On His Craftsmanship As A Novelist.

A Great Novelist, A Learned And Wise Critic, And A Charming Short-Story Writer Can These Three Reside In A Single Person? Yes, But, Of Course, In A Very Few, And E.M. Forster Is Certainly One Of Those Very Few, And That He Is Par Excellence. Any Knowledge Of Modern English Novel Without Even An Acquaintance With Forster Is Absurdly Incomplete. All Of Forster S Six Novels, Perhaps Barring Only Maurice, Have Been And Are Being Printed And Re-Printed In Hundreds Of Thousands Of Copies, And All The Six But Perhaps The Longest Journey Have Been Filmed By Worthy Directors, Such As Lean And Merchant, And The Films Have Received And Are Receiving High And Spontaneous Acclamations. As Said, Forster Is Also An Outstanding Critic And Will Go A Long Way Down The History Of Criticism As Much As He Will Be Remembered As A Highly Fantastic But Excellent Short-Story Writer For A Long Time To Come As He Is Today.This Compendium-Like Book, Split Into Three Volumes, Contains Discussions On All The Six Novels Of Forster Where Angles Fear To Tread, The Longest Journey, A Room With A View, Howards End, Maurice And A Passage To India. Besides, The Study Includes His Twelve Prime Short Stories, And His Critical Acumen And Theories. It Does Not Harbour No, It Carefully Avoids Any Pretension Or Pedantry, But It Comprises Almost All The Matters Relevant To Forsteriana, Plainly But Rather Expatiatingly Treated, So That It Is Expected To Help, Yeoman-Like, Certainly Not The Avant-Garde But The Sophomores. An In-Depth Study Of Forster As A Novelist And As A Critic Provided Herein Adds To The Value Of The Book. Furthermore, Quotations Included In The Appendix, Bibliography And Index Would Serve As Useful Study-Aids For The Readers.

The lectures in this book were delivered at significant points in Professor Nnolim’s career. ‘Literature and the Common Welfare’ (1988) was his inaugural lecture, his declaration that he had come of age as an academic, as a young Professor of literature. In August 2000, he delivered ‘Literature, the Arts and Cultural Development’ to announce his induction as a member of the Nigerian Academy of Letters in which he was finally admitted as a Fellow in 2005. In this lecture, Nnolim makes strong claims about the validity of literature in Nigeria’s national life. In August, 2007, Professor Nnolim delivered ‘The Writer’s Responsibility and Literature in National Development’. Here he re-emphasizes the importance of literary studies in Nigeria’s national life and goes on to lament the total neglect of Nigeria’s artists, writers, and world class intellectuals in national life. The fourth lecture, ‘Morning Yet on Criticism Day: the Criticism of African Literature in the Twentieth Century’, was given as a laureate of the Nigerian National Merit Award, 2009. It unifies Professor Nnolim’s various pleas for the role of literature in national development but particularly re-emphasizing the problem of language in Nigeria’s creative writing and urging governmental intervention in the matter.

The book treats Forster's work in the early short stories, A Room with a View and Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey, Howards End and A Passage to India. It then discusses the changes in Forster's thinking after the First World War and the lasting qualities of Forster's work amidst decaying social cohesion and the loss of imaginative vision.