Amitav Ghosh, The Glass Palace

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Each of Ghosh's books to date has been different in form and point of departure and in

The Glass Palace

he employs the genre of the family saga to tell an epic story that moves between Burma, India and the Malay archipelago and, beginning in the late nineteenth century, spreads across several generations. His prose style is at its simplest here, giving the illusion of a transparent neutral, historical record; and the novel is the least abstract work of a writer, whose whole oeuvre has preferred to make its cultural comments through concrete specifics rather than abstractions. Only occasionally does Ghosh allow himself to make analytical comments across the decades and such comments are usually placed in the mouths of his characters. Otherwise the novel's depiction of the impact of social…

703 words

Citation: Thieme, John. "The Glass Palace". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 March 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=743, accessed 19 April 2024.]

743 The Glass Palace 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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