Three Continents
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- ¥2,200
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- ¥2,200
発行者による作品情報
Three Continents is a tale of the clash between the easternized West and the westernized East. Twins Harriet and Michael–spoiled, quixotic, and extremely wealthy–have eschewed the vapid world of cocktail parties and adulteries that seems to be their inheritance. In constantly searching to complete themselves, they become the perfect fodder for the charismatic Rawul of Dhoka and his sinister Sixth World Movement.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though now widely known for her screenplay of A Room with a View, Jhabvala's literary reputation still rests on her subtle fiction grounded in psychological authenticity. This long novel, set in New York, London and India, is a penetrating psychological study of a young woman generously endowed with breeding and money but starved of self-esteem and purpose. Jhabvala describes the emotional seduction of Harriet Wishwell by the members of a fanatic religious sect, the Fourth World Movement, as well as her physical seduction by one of its leaders. Harriet and her homosexual twin brother Michael are equally drawn to charismatic Crishi, who marries Harriet for the huge inheritance she'll receive on her 21st birthday. Crishi and his cohorts are swindlers and dope pushers, activities they hide behind the movement's pious facade. Jhabvala's evocation of their smarmy appeal is a masterpiece of its kind, as is her portrayal of the restlessness of young people searching for an emotional haven. But Harriet's innocence, credulity and passivity are too broadly drawn; the reader becomes exasperated, wanting to shake sense into her obtuse brain. As Harriet and Michael are used, abused and humiliated, mulcted of their money and their self-respect, the narrative becomes tedious, and the ending is sadly predictable.
