Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927–2013)
Author of Heat and Dust
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
Mr. and Mrs. Bridges 2 copies
Aphrodisiac 1 copy
Get ready for battle 1 copy
Householder 1 copy
חום ואבק 1 copy
Roseland [1977 film] — Screenwriter — 1 copy
Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures [1978 film] — Screenwriter — 1 copy
Interpretationshilfen : Inhaltsangaben und Interpretationen, Themen und Wortschatz, Musterklausur [...] Heat and dust (2007) 1 copy
Out to india 1 copy
Associated Works
You've Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe (1994) — Contributor — 387 copies, 3 reviews
Other Voices, Other Vistas: Short Stories from Africa, China, India, Japan, and Latin America (1992) — Contributor — 196 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
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)
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)
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)
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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- Works
- 57
- Also by
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- Rating
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It is the early days of Westerners searching for the spiritual in India, the time of a simmering conflict between Hindus and Muslims, the time when the British who are there would rather go home but have no choice but to stay.
In the meantime we learn about the culture, the religion of India, the caste system, the terrible customs such as sati (widow burning, which was then officially forbidden by law), leprosy and other diseases, the horrors of heat and sandstorms.
And in between all this walks the Nawab, a Muslim prince, who fills his days with manipulating others.
It is not easy to describe this book without passing judgment on both Olivia and the Nawab. But given the fact that these are -fortunately- fictional characters, a judgement is not desirable. Love, even if it is wrong here, is the dominant theme.
A compelling story without a doubt.… (more)