SOURCE: "Edward Carpenter's From Adam's Peak to Elephanta as a Source for E. M. Forster's A Passage to India," in Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol. XXII, No. 1, January, 1986, pp. 10-5.

In the following essay, Rahman interprets similarities between Carpenters's From Adam's Peak to Elephanta and E. M. Forster's A Passage to India.

While Forster's Pharos and pharillon has been called "one of his most Paterian books",¹ and the influence of Pater has been seen in terms of ideas rather than similarities of diction and parallel passages, a similar claim has not been made for Edward Carpenter's From Adam's Peak to Elephanta. It has, however, been observed that there are obvious similarities between some of Carpenter's ideas and those of Forster. Sheila Rowbotham, for instance, has pointed out that:

Carpenter's attempt to express his homosexual feelings openly and freely was important to Forster. He too considered how love...