... English visitor the moment she steps ashore after A Passage to India, to be engulfed in a whirlwind of mendicants, elephants, snake charmers and crowds. In New York, British director Peter Brook's nine-hour production of an ancient Hindu epic poem, The Mahabharata, has lately been playing to packed houses and considerable critical praise. Best-selling books like Freedom at Midnight re-create the struggle ... of two great cultures, mighty opposites with a twinned destiny, as they set about trying to disentangle themselves and their feelings before the Partition of 1947. Across the countr...

• Word Count: 5127
• Approx Pages: 21
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... century that knowledge- especially from a woman- is not a trait that should be exuded in excessive amounts, particularly in the male-dominated society of her time. She cautions that knowledge in women is for the sole purpose of "amusement of solitude" and "to moderate the passions," and that any more praise to it would be in actuality detrimental to a woman's status. So valuable is knowledge for a woman that Lady ... that she always discusses what Lady Montagu's granddaughter has just read. This ensures that she- the granddaughter- does not mistake "pert folly for wit and humor, or rhym...

• Word Count: 350
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate