Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, Dinuba, California, [1965] October 11 : autograph manuscript signed.

Commenting with amazement on "the French & German write-ups you sent me," and asking if Ivory knows enough of those languages to understand just how good the reviews are-- "they hail you as some kind of master & the film as a masterpiece"; comparing them to the "decidedly tepid" English reviews and the favorable American ones, but pointing out that good and bad reviews (like the ones for "Householder") must all be taken with the same level of equanimity, "as the Gita bids us"; saying she doesn't want to go to England-- "all I want to do is stay at home with Jhab and the children"-- and she doesn't need to see a doctor [as Ivory has suggested-- see MA 23840.194] because she knows her illness stems from overwork, for which she simply needs to rest; saying she is looking forward to their next project, be it "Esmond in India" or "A Backward Place" or "something entirely new"; describing in detail the "really dreadful letter" she recently received from Jennifer, in which the latter expressed a desire not to return to India from England, not wanting to be seen as "just an extension of Shashi & no one listening to her ever or taking her seriously as a person"; saying she was "shocked by the tone of absolute despair"; recounting the contents of the "long, unfeeling, rather priggish letter" she wrote in reply, suggesting that Jennifer create the work she wants for herself; asking Ivory to reinforce this with a letter of his own in the same vein; giving the "very much better" news of Foo (Felicity Kendal, Jennifer's sister) in England, where she has interviews and a boyfriend, but mentioning that Foo had a ticket to New York but didn't go for the festival screening of "Shakespeare Wallah" because Ivory and Merchant didn't invite her; suggesting a resemblance between Merchant and American musician Korla Pandit, and saying they could raise money putting Merchant onstage with an organ as "Whatever Korla Pandit can do, he can do a hundred times better"; expressing enthusiasm for a proposed documentary on Nirad Chaudhuri [which will become "Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization"].