Original Letters from India - Softcover

Fay, Eliza

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9780701210007: Original Letters from India

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0701210001 ISBN 13: 9780701210007

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 1986

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The author shares a humorous account of her experiences during her travels in India, Asia, and Europe

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From the Back Cover:

In 1925, the year after his novel A Passage to India first appeared, E.M. Forster introduced the 'tremendous', 'prepotent' Eliza Fay to an astonished public.Now she is reintroduced to us in all her glory by M, M. Kaye, whose Far Pavilions has delighted so many lovers of the East.

Eliza Fay originally set sail for the dusty streets of Madras and Calcutta in 1779 with her husband, a lawyer. Theirs was not an auspicious passage and - oh Terrible Fate! - Hyder Ali threw then into gaol on arrival. This was only the start of a series of adventures spanning forty years in Europe and Asia, across the seas to the Untied States - and, constantly, back to her beloved India.

From the beginning, Eliza took to her pen with hilarious gusto, unusual sympathy and telling eye; hers are provocative impressions of male insensitivity and female fortitude, of the British abroad, in all their stupidity and triumph. She is, as Forster says, 'A work of art'.

Eliza Fay (1756 - 1816) was a scamstress, teacher and luckless merchant. Her splendid letters, never before paperbacked, appeared first in India in 1817 and were edited for British publication by E. M. Forster over a century later.

About the Author:

Little is known about Eliza Fay (1756-1816); even her maiden name is a mystery. She is thought to have been born in Blackheath, England and her father may have been a sailor. It is possible that she trained as a dressmaker. She married an Irish attorney with whom she traveled to India, but separated from him a few years after their arrival in Calcutta and returned to England. She made several more trips to India, where she engaged in ruinous business and importing schemes, including one that brought her to New York. She died at the age of sixty, penniless, in Calcutta.

E. M. Forster (1879-1970) was a novelist, short-story writer, and critic. His most famous works include Howard's End, A Passage to India, and A Room with a View.

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