A Passage to India

The other canonical British novel of empire — but Conrad's darkness is existential where Forster's is political. Forster refuses Conrad's despair about the human capacity for connection.

The postcolonial answer to Forster — written from inside the colonized culture rather than looking in. Achebe explicitly criticized Conrad; his relationship to Forster is more complex.

Forster's earlier 'Only connect' novel — the same theme of cross-class, cross-culture connection, but set in England and ending more hopefully than the Indian novel allows.

Another liberal Englishman's critique of empire from within it — but Orwell's bitterness is sharper and his characters more pessimistic than Forster's.

The canonical pro-empire novel of British India — Kipling loves India and never questions British rule. Reading Kim alongside Forster reveals how completely the same setting can produce opposite arguments.

Roy's postcolonial Indian novel — post-independence, but the structural argument (that society prevents certain connections from happening) rhymes with Forster's 'not yet, not here.'