The Glass Palace

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“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.” (1-5)

“Only through time time is conquered.” (92).
(T. S. Eliot. “The Four Quartets” )

Literature is a mirror of the society and it reflects the socio, political and economic conditions of the society. The different genres portray the various events and their impacts on the society at different points of time. Therefore time is an important factor in literature. E.M.Forster emphasizing the importance of clock-time in fiction writing says, “…it is never possible for a novelist to deny time inside the fabric of his novel: he must cling, however lightly to the thread of his story, he must touch the interminable tapeworm, otherwise he becomes unintelligible” (44). Time plays a predominant role in the Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace. He employs it as an effective tool to blend the past, present and the future.
The Glass Palace is a blend of history, fiction, autobiographical records and memories. His historical sense involves a perception, to borrow an idea from T. S. Eliot, not only of the 'pastness of the past', but of its presence and its relevance to future. Many instances in The Glass Palace show his profound interest in the concept of ‘time’. To quote from his interview for World Literature Today:
Time interests me very much. I think it’s the central element in narrative. All narratives are really the unfolding of events in time . . . .In each of my books you’ll see that time as a problem is approached very differently. In Circle of Reason each pa...

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... Blackwell, 1993.
Faber & Faber, 1935.
Forster, E. M. Aspects of the Novel. Ed. Oliver Stallybrass. London: Penguin Books, 1990.
Ghosh, Amitav. The Glass Palace. Delhi: Harper and Collins, 2000.
---. Aldama, Frederick Luis. An Interview with Amitav Ghosh. World Literature Today: A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma. 76.2 2002. 84- 90
Lodge, David. The Art of Fiction, United Kingdom: Secker and Warburg, 1992.
Nietsche, Frederich. The use and abuse of History. Trans. Adrian Collins. New York: Liberal Arts press, 1972.
Punekar, Rohini Mokashi. “Repositioning borders: A reading of The Glass Palace” Critical Practice. vol. x.No.1. Jan 2003.
T. S. Eliot. “The Four Quartets” Collected Poems 1909-1962. London:
Unger, Leonard. T. S. Eliot: Moments and Patterns. Minneapolis: n.p. 1966.

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