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Heat and Dust

by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala


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Olivia Rivers, first wife of colonial officer Douglas Rivers, is the central character in this book which is narrated by Anne, the granddaughter of Douglas Rivers by his second wife. In 1923, Olivia Rivers travels to India to join Douglas at his post, but she has difficulty adjusting because the British maintain such a distance from the Indians. Olivia finds a local man, Nawab, more interesting than British colonial society, and eventually she develops an affair with him. In a parallel story, the narrator also becomes enamored on an Indian man, her landlord Inder Lal. Written after Jhabvala had begun her film collaborations with Merchant/Ivory, the book contains 23 sections, juxtaposing certain scenes together in the manner of a film. The book won the 1975 Booker Prize.


Available editions of Heat and Dust

9781582430157 9781582430157, Paperback, Counterpoint, 1999

$4.41 (Very Good)

Other copies of 9781582430157
   
9780060806415 9780060806415, Paperback, Harper & Row, 1983

$1.00 (Very Good)

Other copies of 9780060806415
   
9780060121976 9780060121976, Hardcover, Harpercollins, 1976

$1.00 (Good )

Other copies of 9780060121976
   
9780719534010 9780719534010, Book, J. Murray, 1975

£1.00 (GOOD)

Other copies of 9780719534010
   

Publisher Notes

Set in colonial India during the 1920s, Heat and Dust tells the story of Olivia, a beautiful woman suffocated by the propriety and social constraints of her position as the wife of an important English civil servant. Longing for passion and independence, Olivia is drawn into the spell of the Nawab, a minor Indian prince deeply involved in gang raids and criminal plots. She is intrigued by the Nawab's charm and aggressive courtship, and soon begins to spend most of her days in his company. But then she becomes pregnant, and unsure of the child's paternity, she is faced with a wrenching dilemma. Her reaction to the crisis humiliates her husband and outrages the British community, breeding a scandal that lives in collective memory long after her death.

Media Reviews

"'Heat and Dust' is not just good fiction. It is literature. Read it."

First Line

Shortly after Olivia went away with the Nawab, Beth Crawford returned from Simla. This was in September, 1923.

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