Frank Kermode

Frank Kermode's assesses the influence and meaning of all of Forster's novels as well as his criticism, reflects on his profound musicality (Britten thought Foster the most musical of all writers) and offers a fascinating interpretation of his greatest work, 'A Passage to India'.

Augustus Melmotte is a fraudulent foreign financier who preys on dissolute nobility - using charm to tempt the weak into making foolish investments in his dubious schemes. Persuaded to put money into a notional plot to run a railroad from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, the capricious gambler Felix Carbury soon becomes one of his victims.