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marriage. Ronny apologizes to his mother for his behavior at Mr. Fielding's

house. Mrs. Moore is now tired of India and wishes only for her passage

back to England. Ronny reminds her that she has dealt with three sets of

Indians today, and all three have let her down, but Mrs. Moore claims that

she likes Aziz. The Nawab Bahadur thinks that the accident was caused by a

ghost, for several years before he was in a car accident in which he killed

a drunken man.

Chapter Nine:

Aziz falls ill with fever, and Hamidullah discusses his illness with

Syed Mohammed, the assistant engineer, and Mr. Haq, a police inspector.

Rafi, the engineer's nephew, suggests that something suspicious occurred,

for Godbole also fell sick after Fielding's party, but Hamidullah dismisses

the idea. Mr. Fielding visits Aziz. They discuss Indian education, and Aziz

asks if it is fair that an Englishman holds a teaching position when

qualified Indians are available. Fielding cannot answer "England holds

India for her own good," the only answer to a conversation of this type.

Fielding instead says that he is delighted to be in India, and that is his

only excuse for working there. He suggests chucking out any Englishman who

does not appreciate being in India.

Chapter Ten:

Opposite Aziz's bungalow stands a large unfinished house belonging to

two brothers. A squirrel hangs on it, seeming to be the only occupant of

the house. More noises come from nearby animals. These animals make up the

majority of the living creatures of India, yet do not care how India is

governed.

Chapter Eleven:

Aziz shows Fielding a picture of his wife, a custom uncommon in

Islamic tradition. Aziz tells him that he believes in the purdah, but would

have told his wife that Fielding is his brother and thus she would have

seen him, just as Hamidullah and a small number of others had. Fielding

wonders what kindness he offered to Aziz to have such kindness offered back

to him. Aziz asks Fielding if he has any children, which he does not, and

asks why he does not marry Miss Quested. He claims that she is a prig, a

pathetic product of Western education who prattles on as if she were at a

lecture. He tells him that Adela is engaged to the City Magistrate. Aziz

then makes a derogatory comment about Miss Quested's small breasts. Aziz

discovers that Fielding was warm-hearted and unconventional, but not wise,

yet they are friends and brothers.

Part Two: Caves

Chapter Twelve:

This chapter is devoted solely to a description of the Marabar Caves.

Each of the caves include a tunnel about eight feet long, five feet high,

three feet wide that leads to a circular chamber about twenty feet in

diameter. Having seen one cave, one has essentially seen all of them. A

visitor who sees them returns to Chandrapore uncertain whether he has had

an interesting experience, a dull one, or even an experience at all. In one

of the caves there is rumored to be a boulder that swings on the summit of

the highest of the hills; this boulder sits on a pedestal known as the Kawa

Dol.

Chapter Thirteen:

Adela Quested mentions the trip to the Marabar Caves to Miss Derek,

but she mentions that she is unsure whether the trip will occur because

Indians seem forgetful. A servant overhears them, and passes on the

information to Mahmoud Ali. Aziz therefore decides to push the matter

through, securing Fielding and Godbole for the trip and asking Fielding to

approach Miss Quested and Mrs. Moore. Aziz considers all aspects of the

trip, including food and alcohol, and worries about the cultural

differences. Mrs. Moore and Adela travel to the caves in a purdah carriage.

Aziz finds that Antony, the servant that the women are bringing, is not to

be trusted, so he suggests that he is unnecessary, but Antony insists that

Ronny wants him to go. Mohammed Latif bribes Antony not to go on the trip

with them. Ten minutes before the train is to leave, Fielding and Godbole

are not yet at the station. The train starts just as Fielding and Godbole

arrive; Godbole had miscalculated the length of his morning prayer. When

the two men miss the train, Aziz blames himself. Aziz feels that this trip

is a chance for him to demonstrate that Indians are capable of

responsibility.

Chapter Fourteen:

For the past two weeks in which they had been in India, Mrs. Moore and

Miss Quested had felt nothing, living inside cocoons; Mrs. Moore accepts

her apathy, but Adela resents hers. It is Adela's faith that the whole

stream of events is important and interesting, and if she grows bored she

blames herself severely. This is her only major insincerity. Mrs. Moore

feels increasingly that people are important, but relationships between

them are not and that in particular too much fuss has been made over

marriage. The train reaches its destination and they ride elephants to

reach the caves. None of the guests particularly want to see the caves.

Aziz overrates hospitality, mistaking it for intimacy and not seeing that

it is tainted with a sense of possession. It is only when Mrs. Moore and

Fielding are near that he knows that it is more blessed to receive than to

give. Miss Quested admits that it is inevitable that she will become an

Anglo-Indian, but Aziz protests. She hopes that she will not become like

Mrs. Turton and Mrs. Callendar, but admits that she does not have a special

force of character to stop that tendency. In one of the caves there is a

distinct echo, which alarms Mrs. Moore, who decides she must leave the

cave. Aziz appreciates the frankness with which Mrs. Moore treats him. Mrs.

Moore begins to write a letter to her son and daughter, but cannot because

she remains disturbed and frightened by the echo in the cave. She is

terrified because the universe no longer offers repose to her soul. She has

lost all interest, even in Aziz, and the affectionate and sincere words

that she had spoken seem foreign to her.

Chapter Fifteen:

Adela and Aziz and a guide continue along the tedious expedition. They

encounter several isolated caves which the guide persuades them to visit,

but there is really nothing for them to see. Aziz has little to say to Miss

Quested, for he likes her less than he does Mrs. Moore and greatly dislikes

that she is marrying a British official, while Adela has little to say to

Aziz. Adela realizes that she does not love Ronny, but is not sure whether

that is reason enough to break off her engagement. She asks Aziz if he is

married, and he tells her that he is, feeling that it is more artistic to

have his wife alive for a moment. She asks him if he has one wife or more

than one, a question which shocks him very much, but Adela is unaware that

she had said the wrong thing.

Chapter Sixteen:

Aziz waits in the cave, smoking, and when he returns he finds the

guide alone with his head on one side. The guide does not know exactly

which cave Miss Quested entered, and Aziz worries that she is lost. On his

way down the path to the car that had arrived from Chandrapore, Aziz finds

Miss Quested's field glasses lying at the verge of a cave and puts them in

his pocket. He sees Fielding, who arrived in Miss Derek's car, but neither

he nor anyone else knows where Adela has gone. The expedition ends, and the

train arrives to bring them back into Chandrapore. As they arrive in town,

Mr. Haq arrests Dr. Aziz, but he is under instructions not to say the

charge. Aziz refuses to go, but Fielding talks him into cooperating. Mr.

Turton leads Fielding off so that Aziz goes to prison alone.

Chapter Seventeen:

Fielding speaks to the Collector, who tells him that Miss Quested has

been insulted in one of the Marabar Caves and that he would not allow

Fielding to accompany Aziz to preserve him from scandal. Fielding thinks

that Adela is mad, a remark that Mr. Turton demands that he withdraw.

Fielding explains that he cannot believe that Aziz is guilty. Mr. Turton

tells Fielding that he has been in the country for twenty-five years, and

in that time he has never known anything but disaster whenever Indians and

the English interact socially. He tells Fielding that there will be an

informal meeting at the club that evening to discuss the situation.

Fielding keeps his head during the discussion; he does not rally to the

banner of race. The Collector goes to the platform, where he can see the

confusion about him. He takes in the situation with a glance, and his sense

of justice functions although he is insane with rage. When he sees coolies

asleep in the ditches or the shopkeepers rising to salute him, he says to

himself "I know what you're like at last; you shall pay for this, you shall

squeal."

Chapter Eighteen:

Mr. McBryde, the District Superintendent of Police, is the most

reflective and best educated of the Chandrapore officials. He receives Aziz

with courtesy, but is shocked at his downfall. McBryde has a theory about

climatic zones: all unfortunate natives are criminals at heart, for the

simple reason that they live south of latitude 30. They are thus not to

blame, for they have not a dog's chance. McBryde, however, admits that he

seems to contradict this theory himself. The charge against Aziz is that he

followed her into the cave and made insulting advances; she hit him with

her field glasses, but he pulled at them and the strap broke, and that is

how she got away. They find that Aziz has the glasses. Fielding asks if he

may see Adela, but the request is denied. McBryde admits to Fielding that

she is in no state to see anyone, but Fielding believes that she's under a

hideous delusion and Aziz is innocent. Fielding explains that, if Aziz were

guilty, he would not have kept the field glasses. McBryde tells him that

the Indian criminal psychology is different, and shows Fielding the

contents of Aziz's pocket case, including a letter from a friend who keeps

a brothel. The police also find pictures of women in Aziz's bungalow, but

Fielding says that the picture is of Aziz's wife.

Chapter Nineteen:

Hamidullah waits outside the Superintendent's office; Fielding tells

him that evidence for Aziz's innocence will come. Hamidullah is convinced

that Aziz is innocent and throws his lot with the Indians, realizing the

profundity of the gulf that separates them. Hamidullah wants Aziz to have

Armitrao, a Hindu who is notoriously anti-British, as his lawyer. Fielding

feels this is too extreme. Fielding tells Hamidullah that he is on the side

of Aziz, but immediately regrets taking sides, for he wishes to slink

through India unlabelled. Fielding has a talk with Godbole, who is entirely

unaffected by Aziz's plight. He tells Fielding that he is leaving

Chandrapore to return to his birthplace in Central India to take charge of

education there. He wants to start a High School on sound English lines.

Godbole cannot say whether or not he thinks that Aziz is guilty; he says

that nothing can be performed in isolation, for when one performs a good

action, all do, and when an evil action is performed, all perform it. He

claims that good and evil are both aspects of the Lord. Fielding goes to

see Aziz, but finds him unapproachable through misery. Fielding wonders why

Miss Quested, such a dry, sensible girl without malice, would falsely

accuse an Indian.

Chapter Twenty:

Miss Quested's plight had brought her great support among the English

in India; she came out from her ennobled in sorrow. At the meeting at the

club, Fielding asks whether there is an official bulletin about Adela's

health, or whether the grave reports are due to gossip. Fielding makes an

error by speaking her name; others refer to both Adela and Aziz in vague

and impersonal terms. Each person feels that all he loved best was at stake

in the matter. The Collector tells them to assume that every Indian is an

angel. The event had made Ronny Heaslop a martyr, the recipient of all the

evil intended against them by the country they had tried to serve. As he

watches Fielding, the Collector says that responsibility is a very awful

thing, but he has no use for the man who shirks it. He claims that he is

against any show of force. Fielding addresses the meeting, telling them

that he believes that Aziz is innocent; if Aziz is found guilty, Fielding

vows to reign and leave India, but now he resigns from the club. When Ronny

enters, Fielding does not stand. The Collector insists that he apologize to

Ronny, but then orders Fielding to leave immediately.

Chapter Twenty-One:

Fielding spends the rest of the evening with the Nawab Bahadur,

Hamidullah, Mahmoud Ali, and others of the confederacy. Fielding has an

inclination to tell Professor Godbole of the tactical and moral error he

had made in being rude to Ronny Heaslop, but Godbole had already gone to

bed.

Chapter Twenty-Two:

Adela lay for several days in the McBryde's bungalow; others are over-

kind to her, the men too respectful and the women too sympathetic. The one

visitor she wants, Mrs. Moore, kept away. She tells that she went into a

detestable cave, remembers scratching the wall with her finger nail, and

then there was a shadow down the entrance tunnel, bottling her up. She hit

him with her glasses, he pulled her round the cave by the strap, it broke,

and she escaped. He never actually touched her. She refuses to cry, a

degradation worse than what occurred in the Marabar and a negation of her

advanced outlook. Adela feels that only Mrs. Moore can drive back the evil

that happened to her. Ronny tells her that she must appear in court, and

Adela asks if his mother can be there. He tells her that the case will come

before Mr. Das, the brother of Mrs. Bhattacharya and Ronny's assistant.

Ronny tells Adela that Fielding wrote her a letter (which he opened). He

tells her that the defense had got hold of Fielding, who has done the

community a great disservice. Adela worries that Mrs. Moore is ill, but

Ronny says that she is merely irritable at the moment. When she sees her,

Adela thinks that she repels Mrs. Moore, who has no inclination to be

helpful; Mrs. Moore appears slightly resentful, without her Christian

tenderness. Mrs. Moore refuses to be at all involved in the trial. She

tells that she will attend their marriage but not their trial. She vows to

go to England. Ronny tells her that she appears to want to be left out of

everything. She says that the human race would have become a single person

centuries ago if marriage were any use. Adela wonders whether she made a

mistake, and tells Ronny that he is innocent. She feels that Mrs. Moore has

told her that Aziz is innocent. Ronny tells her not to say such things,

because every servant he has is a spy. Mrs. Moore tells Adela that of

course Aziz is innocent. Mrs. Moore thinks that she is a bad woman, but she

will not help Ronny torture a man for what he never did. She claims that

there are different ways of evil, and she prefers her own to his. Ronny

thinks that Mrs. Moore must leave India, for she was doing no good to

herself or anyone else.

Chapter Twenty-Three:

Lady Mellanby, wife of the Lieutenant-Governor, had been gratified by

the appeal addressed to her by the ladies of Chandrapore, but she could do

nothing; she does agree to help Mrs. Moore get passage out of India in her

own cabin. Mrs. Moore got what she desired: she escaped the trial, the

marriage and the hot weather, and will return to England in comfort. Mrs.

Moore, however, has come to that state where the horror and the smallness

of the universe are visible. The echo in the cave was a revelation to Mrs.

Moore, insignificant though it may be. Mrs. Moore departs from Chandrapore

alone, for Ronny cannot leave the town.

Chapter Twenty-Four:

The heat accelerates after Mrs. Moore's departure until it seems a

punishment. Adela resumes her morning kneel to Christianity, imploring God

for a favorable verdict. Adela worries that she will break down during the

trial, but the Collector tells her that she is bound to win, but does not

tell her that Nawab Bahadur had financed the defense and would surely

appeal. The case is called, and the first person Adela notices in the Court

is the man who pulls the punkah; to Adela, this nearly naked man stands out

as divine as he pulls the rope. Mr. McBryde behaves casually, as if he

knows that Aziz will be found guilty. He remarks that the darker races are

physically attracted to the fairer, but not vice verse, and a voice is

heard from the crowd asking "even when the lady is so much uglier than the

man?" Mahmoud Ali claims that Mrs. Moore was sent away because she would

have testified that Aziz is innocent. The audience begins chanting Mrs.

Moore until her name seems to be Esmiss Esmoor, as if a Hindu goddess. The

magistrate scolds Armitrao and McBryde for presuming Mrs. Moore's presence

as a witness. Adela is the next to testify; a new sensation protects her

like a magnificent armor. When McBryde asks her whether Aziz followed her,

she say that she cannot be sure. Finally, she admits that she made a

mistake and Dr. Aziz never followed her. The Major attempts to stop the

proceedings on medical grounds, but Adela withdraws the charge. The Nawab

Bahadur declares in court that this is a scandal. Mr. Das rises and

releases the prisoner, as the man who pulls the punkah continues as if

nothing had occurred.

Chapter Twenty-Five:

Miss Quested renounces his own people and is drawn into a mass of

Indians and carried toward the public exit of the court. Fielding finds

her, and tells her that she cannot walk alone in Chandrapore, for there

will be a riot. She wonders if she should join the other English persons,

but Fielding puts her in his carriage. One of Fielding's students finds him

and gives him a garland of jasmine, but Fielding has wearied of his

students' adoration. The student vows to pull Fielding and Miss Quested in

a procession. Mahmoud Ali shouts "down with the Collector, down with the

Superintendent of Police," but the Nawab Bahadur reprimands him as unwise.

A riot nearly occurs, but Dr. Panna Lal calms the situation. Although Dr.

Lal was going to testify for the prosecution, he makes a public apology to

Aziz and secures the release of Nureddin, for there are rumors that he was

being tortured by the police.

Chapter Twenty-Six:

Fielding and Miss Quested remain isolated at the college and have the

first of several curious conversations. He asks her why she would make a

charge if she were to withdraw it, but she cannot give a definitive answer.

She tells him that she has been unwell since the caves and perhaps before

that, and wonders what gave her the hallucination. He offers four

explanations, but only gives three: Aziz is guilty, as her friends think;

she invented the charge out of malice, which is what Fielding's friends

think; or, she had a hallucination. He tells her that he believes that she

broke the strap of the field glasses and was alone in the cave the whole

time. She tells him that she first felt out of sorts at the party with Aziz

and Godbole, and tells him that she had a hallucination of a marriage

proposal when there was none. Fielding believes that McBryde exorcised her:

as soon as he asked a straightforward question, she gave a straightforward

answer and broke down. She asks what Aziz thinks of her, and Fielding tells

Adela that Aziz is not capable of thought in his misery, but is naturally

very bitter. An underlying feeling with Aziz is that he had been accused by

an ugly woman; Aziz is a sexual snob. Fielding offers the fourth

explanation: that it was the guide who assaulted Adela, but that option is

inconclusive. Hamidullah joins them, and alternately praises and reprimands

Adela. Fielding and Hamidullah are unsure where Adela could go, because no

place seems safe for her. Fielding has a new sympathy for Adela, who has

become a real person to him. Adela thinks that she must go to the Turtons,

for the Collector would take her in, if not his wife. Ronny arrives and

tells them that Mrs. Moore died at sea from the heat. Fielding tells him

that Adela will stay at the college but he will not be responsible for her

safety.

Chapter Twenty-Seven:

After the Victory Banquet at Mr. Zulfiqar's mansion, Aziz and Fielding

discuss the future. Aziz knows that Fielding wants him to not sue Adela,

for it will show him to be a gentleman, but Aziz says that he has become

anti-British and ought to have become so sooner. Aziz says that he will not

let Miss Quested off easily to make a better reputation for himself and

Indians generally, for it will be put down to weakness and the attempt to

gain promotion. Aziz decides that he will have nothing more to do with

British India and will seek service in some Moslem State. Fielding tells

Aziz that Adela is a prig, but perfectly genuine and very brave. He tells

Aziz what a momentous move she made. Fielding offers to be an intermediary

for an apology from Adela, and Aziz asks for an apology in which Adela

admits that she is an awful hag. Aziz finally agrees to consult Mrs. Moore.

However, when Fielding blurts out that she is dead, Aziz does not believe

him.

Chapter Twenty-Eight:

The death of Mrs. Moore assumes more subtle and lasting shapes in

Chandrapore than in England. A legend sprang up that Ronny killed her for

trying to save Aziz's life, and there was sufficient truth in that legend

to trouble authorities. Ronny reminds himself that Mrs. Moore left India of

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