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Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927–2013)

Author of Heat and Dust

55+ Works 3,752 Members 60 Reviews 6 Favorited

About the Author

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Cologne, Germany on May 7, 1927. She had to emigrate to England in 1939 with her family because of their Jewish faith. She earned a degree in English literature at London University. In 1951, she married an Indian architect, moved to India and raised three show more daughters. She began writing in 1955 and has written a dozen novels. Several novels were set in India such as The Nature of Passion, Esmond in India, Travelers and The Householder, which was also her first motion picture project. Shakespeare Wallah was her first collaboration on an original project. She also wrote screenplays such as Roseland and Jefferson in Paris. Her other fiction works included In Search of Love and Beauty, Three Continents, Poet and Dancer, Shards of Memory, East into Upper East and My Nine Lives: Chapters of a Possible Past. She won numerous awards including Britain's Booker Prize for her novel Heat and Dust in 1975, the BAFTA award for Best Screenplay for the filmed adaptation of Heat and Dust in 1984, an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for A Room With a View in 1986, the Best Screenplay Award from the New York Film Critics Circle for Mr. & Mrs. Bridge in 1990, an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Howards, the MacArthur Foundation Award in 1984 and the Writers Guild of America's Screen Laurel Award in 1994. She died on April 3, 2013 at the age of 85. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Courtesy of www.themanbookerprize.com

Works by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Heat and Dust (1975) 1,245 copies
A Room with a View [1985 film] (1985) — Screenwriter — 243 copies
The Remains of the Day [1993 film] (1993) — Screenwriter — 175 copies
The Householder (1960) 139 copies
Howards End [1992 film] (1992) — Screenwriter — 135 copies
A Backward Place (1965) 125 copies
Esmond in India (1958) 120 copies
Three Continents (1987) 115 copies
Poet and Dancer (1981) 89 copies
Shards of Memory (1995) 87 copies
Travelers (1657) 84 copies
Get Ready for Battle (1962) 73 copies
The Nature of Passion (1956) 67 copies
How I Became a Holy Mother (1976) 66 copies
Le Divorce [2003 film] (2003) — Screenwriter — 49 copies
Amrita: Or to Whom She Will (1955) 47 copies
A New Dominion (1972) 46 copies
A Stronger Climate (1968) 36 copies
Heat and Dust [1983 film] (2003) — Screenwriter/Original novel — 21 copies
The Bostonians [1984 film] (2003) — Screenwriter — 19 copies
Mr. & Mrs. Bridge [1990 film] (1990) — Screenwriter — 17 copies
Jefferson in Paris [1995 film] (1995) — Screenwriter — 14 copies
Modern Short Stories 2: 1940-1980 (1982) — Contributor — 12 copies
Shakespeare Wallah [1965 film] (2004) — Screenwriter — 10 copies
Bombay Talkie [1970 film] (1970) — Screenwriter — 8 copies
Surviving Picasso [1996 film] (2011) — Screenwriter — 7 copies
Jane Austen In Manhattan [1980 film] (1980) — Screenwriter — 7 copies
An experience of India (1972) 5 copies
The Europeans [1979 film] (2003) — Screenwriter — 4 copies
Olivia (1978) 2 copies
Roseland [1977 film] — Screenwriter — 1 copy
Aphrodisiac 1 copy
The Householder [1962 film] (2004) — Screenwriter — 1 copy

Associated Works

The Best American Short Stories 2014 (2014) — Contributor — 269 copies
Nothing But You: Love Stories From The New Yorker (1997) — Contributor — 186 copies
Stories from The New Yorker, 1950 to 1960 (1958) — Contributor — 80 copies
India in Mind (2005) — Contributor — 80 copies
Choice Words: Writers on Abortion (2020) — Contributor — 74 copies
Women and Fiction: Volume 2 (1978) — Contributor — 73 copies
One World of Literature (1992) — Contributor — 24 copies
Passages: 24 Modern Indian Stories (Signet Classics) (2009) — Contributor — 10 copies
The City of Your Final Destination [2009 film] (2010) — Writer — 6 copies

Tagged

1920s (15) 1970s (14) 20th century (68) American literature (16) anthology (139) Anthony Hopkins (14) Asia (21) Booker (28) Booker Prize (72) Booker Prize Winner (40) British (17) colonialism (30) drama (65) DVD (117) England (14) English (14) English literature (31) fiction (718) film (34) historical (17) historical fiction (30) India (400) Indian (39) Indian fiction (14) Indian literature (61) literature (71) love (18) movie (25) movies (15) New Yorker (20) non-fiction (16) novel (83) read (28) romance (39) short stories (296) stories (24) to-read (146) travel (16) unread (38) women (36)

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Prawer, Ruth (birth name)
Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer (married name)
Birthdate
1927-05-07
Date of death
2013-04-03
Gender
female
Nationality
Germany (born)
UK (naturalized)
USA (naturalized)
Birthplace
Cologne, Germany
Place of death
Manhattan, New York, USA
Places of residence
England, UK
New York, New York, USA
Delhi, India
Education
Hendon County School
University of London (Queen Mary College)
Occupations
novelist
screenwriter
short-story writer
Relationships
Prawer, S.S. (brother)
Ivory, James
Merchant, Ismail
Awards and honors
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award(Literature ∙ 1992)
Academy Award (Best Adapted Screenplay, 1992, 1986)
Short biography
Ruth Prawer was born in Cologne to a Jewish family. In 1939 they fled the Nazis to England, where she studied English literature at Queen Mary College and began to speak and write in English. In 1951 she married Cyrus H. Jhabvala, an Indian architect. The couple moved to India and raised three daughters there. From 1975 until her death, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala lived in New York City.

Beginning in 1955, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote a dozen novels, many of them set in India. Two of them, The Householder and Heat and Dust, were adapted for the screen. Heat and Dust, Jhabvala's last book written in India, brought her the Booker Prize. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, Jhabvala also had three short story collections published in addition to her novels.

Jhabvala was also an accomplished screenwriter, known for her many collaborations with director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. This working relationship began with the 1963 film adaptation of The Householder, followed two years later by an original screenplay for Shakespeare Wallah, a film now widely regarded as a classic. Jhabvala also adapted novels such as E. M. Forster's A Room with a View and Howard's End for the Merchant-Ivory team, winning Academy Awards for both.

In 1984 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala received a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 1994 she received the Writers Guild of America's Screen Laurel Award, which is the Guild's highest honor. She became a naturalized citizen of the United Kingdom in 1948, and of the United States in 1986.

Members

Reviews

Shakuntala is a young Indian woman who comes home to live with her propserous family in post independance Delhi.

Was slightly dissatisfied with this book. Written in the 1950s, approximately the same time as the book is set, there is the occasional interesting or amusing section, but this is countered by rambling page long paragraphs, that soon bored me. I didnt really engage much with any of the characters, and was still trying to sort out everyone's relationship with each other at the end of the 200 pages. will not be running out to get other books from this author… (more)
 
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nordie | 2 other reviews | Oct 14, 2023 |
The modern story weaves perfectly with the past story. Lovely.
 
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blueskygreentrees | 34 other reviews | Jul 30, 2023 |
Reason Read: Booker Winner, 1975, ROOT, TIOLI #13

This is a story told by the unnamed woman who has traveled to India to learn more about her step-grandmother, Olivia. The story is told through Olivia's letters and the unnamed woman's own experience in India. But the author also uses flashbacks so we can experience India through Olivia's eyes. The story is good enough but really not sure that this was really Booker material. The step-granddaughter's experience mirroring her step grandmother seemed a bit of a stretch. As often the case, the book tries to show how the English keep themselves separate from the Indian culture and also feminist issues of the seventies; independence, pregnancy, abortion.

I rate it only 3 stars.
… (more)
 
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Kristelh | 34 other reviews | Feb 26, 2023 |
Published in 1975, this book tells the story of an unnamed British woman who travels to India in search of her step–grandmother’s past. Her English step-grandmother, Olivia, had lived with her husband, a British official, in Satipur in the 1920s, during the era of the British Raj. She had developed a friendship with the local Nawab, an Indian Muslim prince. Later, the friendship became an infatuation, and a scandal ensued. The narrator has always been intrigued with her family’s history. In the 1970s, she inherits Olivia’s letters and journals, which further piques her curiosity. While in India, the narrator’s life starts to parallel that of her step-grandmother.

Throughout this story, the reader will become familiar with conditions in India in the 1920s – poverty, disease, crime, and the ever-present “heat and dust.” The letters contain the views of Olivia’s British social circle. Their view of India’s population comes across as mostly negative. Women have a subservient role and are expected to be dutiful and reserved. Olivia, through her contact with the Nawab, provides his views of the British, so the reader gains multiple perspectives. Both the British and the Nawab live in relative luxury compared to the majority of the population.

The reader comes to understand why Olivia and the Nawab are mutually attracted. He treats her with respect, confides in her, and sees her as a woman of agency. It is a character-driven novel. The 1970s story is narrated in first person. The historical story is told as if it were unfolding. Near the end there is conflict introduced by two male characters that results in Olivia taking a drastic action. It is not a happy story and not for anyone seeking one with all the loose ends tied up. I can see why this book won the Booker prize.
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Castlelass | 34 other reviews | Oct 30, 2022 |

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Associated Authors

Ismail Merchant Producer, producer
E. M. Forster Original novel, Novel
Tony Pierce-Roberts Photographer
Clare West Editor
Frank Sargeson Contributor
William Sansom Contributor
Mary Lavin Contributor
Geoffrey Bush Contributor
Elspeth Davie Contributor
Rhys Davies Contributor
Seán O'Faoláin Contributor
Roald Dahl Contributor
Fred Urquhart Contributor
Francis King Contributor
Morlay Callaghan Contributor
Edmund Crispin Contributor
J. G. Ballard Contributor
Muriel Spark Contributor
Jean Rhys Contributor
Nadine Gordimer Contributor
Samuel Beckett Contributor
William Trevor Contributor
R. K. Narayan Contributor
Elizabeth Bowen Contributor
Graham Greene Contributor
Doris Lessing Contributor
Patrick White Contributor
Alan Sillitoe Contributor
Angus Wilson Contributor
Elizabeth Taylor Contributor
L. P. Hartley Contributor
John McGahern Contributor
James Fox Actor
Kazuo Ishiguro Original book
John Bright Designer
Jenny Beavan Designer
Henry James Original novel, Original book
Arianna Huffington Original book
John Pym Writer

Statistics

Works
55
Also by
11
Members
3,752
Popularity
#6,755
Rating
½ 3.6
Reviews
60
ISBNs
221
Languages
8
Favorited
6

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