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Night in Bombay
Set in Bombay during the 1930s, it looks at the lives of ex-pats and Indian royals--and the Indians who work for them.
351 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1940
14 people are currently reading
292 people want to read
About the author
Louis Bromfield
206 books101 followersLouis Bromfield was an American author and conservationist who gained international recognition winning the Pulitzer Prize and pioneering innovative scientific farming concepts.
Bromfield studied agriculture at Cornell University from 1914 to 1916,[1] but transferred to Columbia University to study journalism. While at Columbia University, Louis Bromfield was initiated into the fraternal organization Phi Delta Theta. His time at Columbia would be short lived and he left after less than a year to go to war. After serving with the American Field Service in World War I and being awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor, he returned to New York City and found work as a reporter. In 1924, his first novel, The Green Bay Tree, won instant acclaim. He won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for best novel for Early Autumn. All of his 30 books were best-sellers, and many, such as The Rains Came and Mrs. Parkington, were made into successful motion pictures.
photograph by: Carl Van Vechten
Bromfield studied agriculture at Cornell University from 1914 to 1916,[1] but transferred to Columbia University to study journalism. While at Columbia University, Louis Bromfield was initiated into the fraternal organization Phi Delta Theta. His time at Columbia would be short lived and he left after less than a year to go to war. After serving with the American Field Service in World War I and being awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor, he returned to New York City and found work as a reporter. In 1924, his first novel, The Green Bay Tree, won instant acclaim. He won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for best novel for Early Autumn. All of his 30 books were best-sellers, and many, such as The Rains Came and Mrs. Parkington, were made into successful motion pictures.
photograph by: Carl Van Vechten
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
July 10, 2014
I wouldn't know about Louis Bromfield if he hadn't won a Pulitzer Prize for Early Autumn. I'm glad I've discovered him. A great writer, it's a mystery why he's not better known.
A different feel than Early Autumn, we have Carol who travels to Bombay and finds herself heedlessly falling in with some shady characters who are staying in the same hotel and who are attracted by her beauty like some nasty insects attracted to a light. She finds herself bored and living a meaningless life which has sort of reached a dead end and which she doesn't fully realize until she has something of a spiritual awakening when she meets Buck, a good man who is in India to help the poor. However Buck suffers from attacks, partly from a physical cause but mostly from a mental/emotional cause and which prevent him from doing his humanitarian work. Buck is in need of a healing of his spirit after having lived with a cruel life-killing wife who has recently died and also as a result of a strict joyless childhood. Carol had a good down-to-earth childhood on a farm which, along with her natural kindness, are at her core and just need someone to bring to the surface.
A good match, they are both a healing force for each other and each finds happiness they've never known, but they are in two different worlds. Can Carol who is used to the good life give it up to live in poverty and disease with Buck who is absolutely needed in India and can't leave? And to complicate the issue she is told she is no good for him and she has earned something of a reputation from her association with the shady characters.
Compelling beautiful story of the spiritual healing of love and goodness.
I was on pins and needles to see how the story would end and really hoping for a happy ending. Bromfield makes a perfect balance between the possibility of a tragic or a happy ending.
An interesting well--written story with great characterization. You have the good, the bad and then the in-the-middle as with Carol and also Bill, Carol's former husband who has good in him which you hope will win out. It reminds me of the great Iris Murdoch where the bad characters are sordid and ugly and some are so bad as to give you a chill, the weak ones irritate you and get in the way, and the good ones are bound up in complications they are trying to escape, and there's a question of spirituality vs. man-made religion. (You don't have to agree with the whole philosophy as with Ayn Rand, but you can appreciate the questions, the convictions and the humanity.) Bromfield came first, hmm.
But if you don't want to worry about the meaning underneath the story you can just enjoy the story. It just flowed, especially toward the end and I couldn't put it down.
A different feel than Early Autumn, we have Carol who travels to Bombay and finds herself heedlessly falling in with some shady characters who are staying in the same hotel and who are attracted by her beauty like some nasty insects attracted to a light. She finds herself bored and living a meaningless life which has sort of reached a dead end and which she doesn't fully realize until she has something of a spiritual awakening when she meets Buck, a good man who is in India to help the poor. However Buck suffers from attacks, partly from a physical cause but mostly from a mental/emotional cause and which prevent him from doing his humanitarian work. Buck is in need of a healing of his spirit after having lived with a cruel life-killing wife who has recently died and also as a result of a strict joyless childhood. Carol had a good down-to-earth childhood on a farm which, along with her natural kindness, are at her core and just need someone to bring to the surface.
A good match, they are both a healing force for each other and each finds happiness they've never known, but they are in two different worlds. Can Carol who is used to the good life give it up to live in poverty and disease with Buck who is absolutely needed in India and can't leave? And to complicate the issue she is told she is no good for him and she has earned something of a reputation from her association with the shady characters.
Compelling beautiful story of the spiritual healing of love and goodness.
I was on pins and needles to see how the story would end and really hoping for a happy ending. Bromfield makes a perfect balance between the possibility of a tragic or a happy ending.
An interesting well--written story with great characterization. You have the good, the bad and then the in-the-middle as with Carol and also Bill, Carol's former husband who has good in him which you hope will win out. It reminds me of the great Iris Murdoch where the bad characters are sordid and ugly and some are so bad as to give you a chill, the weak ones irritate you and get in the way, and the good ones are bound up in complications they are trying to escape, and there's a question of spirituality vs. man-made religion. (You don't have to agree with the whole philosophy as with Ayn Rand, but you can appreciate the questions, the convictions and the humanity.) Bromfield came first, hmm.
But if you don't want to worry about the meaning underneath the story you can just enjoy the story. It just flowed, especially toward the end and I couldn't put it down.
November 24, 2014
What a fabulous story. I really enjoyed every aspect of this book. Rarely do I read a novel where the characters and their back stories are so developed. I'm so happy I picked this one up.
February 12, 2022
Ich lese derzeit viele Klassiker und muss sagen, dass auch dieser Roman mich nicht überzeugt hat.
Es ist eine Liebesgeschichte, die in Bombay stattfindet zwischen Europäischen Expats und königlichen Indern. In dieser Geschichte passiert nicht viel, es gibt auch nicht wirklich einen emotionalen Aufbau. Die Charaktäre werden in ihrer Hülle und Fülle gut beschrieben, ihre Motive lernt man gut kennen. Aber das wars dann auch.
Würde ich nicht nochmal lesen.
Es ist eine Liebesgeschichte, die in Bombay stattfindet zwischen Europäischen Expats und königlichen Indern. In dieser Geschichte passiert nicht viel, es gibt auch nicht wirklich einen emotionalen Aufbau. Die Charaktäre werden in ihrer Hülle und Fülle gut beschrieben, ihre Motive lernt man gut kennen. Aber das wars dann auch.
Würde ich nicht nochmal lesen.
September 3, 2018
Frumosa poveste..la inceput mi sa parut putin banala dar tot citind a devenit interesanta...finalul a fost frumos
August 17, 2016
A trip back in time to a Bombay of the past.
This book was written in a time where sexism, racism, classism, and other vile prejudice was rampant. It was however, as it was in that time. The plot is interesting and different from so many novels in more than just time and place. It is a love story and a story of awakening for the protagonists and each other. The myriad of other characters in the story bring intrigue, some comedically portrayed, some despicable or pitifully conniving right from the start. All in all: it was a well written and fun journey to an India of 70 years past.
This book was written in a time where sexism, racism, classism, and other vile prejudice was rampant. It was however, as it was in that time. The plot is interesting and different from so many novels in more than just time and place. It is a love story and a story of awakening for the protagonists and each other. The myriad of other characters in the story bring intrigue, some comedically portrayed, some despicable or pitifully conniving right from the start. All in all: it was a well written and fun journey to an India of 70 years past.
February 27, 2017
Absorbing, cheesy, oddly modern in its treatment of Indians while focusing, as one would expect, on the lives of Europeans and Americans in colonial India at some point between the World Wars. The characters are satisfyingly rounded out, though Bromfield relies a bit too heavily on providing an explicit transcript of their thoughts in a shifting close third person. Found myself intrigued at the end after a bit of a lull in the middle. Worthwhile period piece.
August 15, 2015
Haunting tale of a pre-war world of privilege and class (for a few lucky ones), of missed and second chances, of a redemption of sorts and some very interesting characters.. though I think that Lt.Fortescue and the Governor come of the best..
August 29, 2016
5 stars
September 10, 2016
Fascinating and cinematic in scope. Difficult to put down!
September 7, 2017
Well, this was a tough slog. It wasn't a bad book, but I think I'm no longer interested in rich, privileged assholes who waste oodles of time thinking they're better than everyone else and idling away their time with drinking and gambling. Of course, that wasn't the point of the book, just the primary "action", so to speak.
We have a ship going to Bombay carrying Bill Wainwright, a rich playboy who is trying to go straight. He's going to India on the family business. His fellow passengers include Baroness Stephani, who is actually a procurer; Marchesa Carviglia, a former procuree of the Baroness, who managed to snag a prominent Italian Fascist, and who is off for a fling away from her impotent and controlling spouse; and Mrs. Flora Trollope, known to her friends as Stitch, an Australian by birth and the sister of the Maharani of Chandragar. The two sisters hate each other, but poor Stitch married a scoundrel who is in jail and needs someone off of whom to live.
Then we have a train car coming from the Indian hinterlands to Bombay. Its passengers include a "missionary", Homer (Buck) Merrill, who is traveling with his son, soon to be sent back to the U.S. to be educated properly, and a young, blind, village boy named Ali, who is to be treated in Bombay by a famous visiting surgeon to cure his blindness. There is a problem on the train with the "royal" car, and the passenger of that car, Carol Halma, aka Olga Janssen, a former Miss Minnesota and "actress", ends up in Buck Merrill's car with the two boys.
So, anyway, the folks on the boat and the folks on the train all meet up at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay. It seems that , there are numerous interconnections between these folks. It turns out that the good and righteous Buck Merrill, was the best friend and school chum of Bill Wainright, back in the day. Then too, Carol Halma, was once the wife of Bill. She's still a bit of a party girl, but wonders if there isn't something better...or something. Carol has oodles of jewelry from the likes of Jelly, the Maharajah of Jellipore, and from Mr. Botlivala. Buck has some fits of indisposition on the train, and Carol helps him work through them.
........Huh? I seem to have broken off in mid thought, and now some three months later, I'm not remembering all that much. Whatever, it's a convoluted, but somewhat engaging story. Not at the level of Jane Austen or Dostoyevsky, but then, what is?
We have a ship going to Bombay carrying Bill Wainwright, a rich playboy who is trying to go straight. He's going to India on the family business. His fellow passengers include Baroness Stephani, who is actually a procurer; Marchesa Carviglia, a former procuree of the Baroness, who managed to snag a prominent Italian Fascist, and who is off for a fling away from her impotent and controlling spouse; and Mrs. Flora Trollope, known to her friends as Stitch, an Australian by birth and the sister of the Maharani of Chandragar. The two sisters hate each other, but poor Stitch married a scoundrel who is in jail and needs someone off of whom to live.
Then we have a train car coming from the Indian hinterlands to Bombay. Its passengers include a "missionary", Homer (Buck) Merrill, who is traveling with his son, soon to be sent back to the U.S. to be educated properly, and a young, blind, village boy named Ali, who is to be treated in Bombay by a famous visiting surgeon to cure his blindness. There is a problem on the train with the "royal" car, and the passenger of that car, Carol Halma, aka Olga Janssen, a former Miss Minnesota and "actress", ends up in Buck Merrill's car with the two boys.
So, anyway, the folks on the boat and the folks on the train all meet up at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay. It seems that , there are numerous interconnections between these folks. It turns out that the good and righteous Buck Merrill, was the best friend and school chum of Bill Wainright, back in the day. Then too, Carol Halma, was once the wife of Bill. She's still a bit of a party girl, but wonders if there isn't something better...or something. Carol has oodles of jewelry from the likes of Jelly, the Maharajah of Jellipore, and from Mr. Botlivala. Buck has some fits of indisposition on the train, and Carol helps him work through them.
........Huh? I seem to have broken off in mid thought, and now some three months later, I'm not remembering all that much. Whatever, it's a convoluted, but somewhat engaging story. Not at the level of Jane Austen or Dostoyevsky, but then, what is?
March 25, 2020
I chose this 1939 book from the shelf of a dearly departed friend and read it for a book challenge: set in a warm climate. Bromfield never lets you forget how hot it is in Bombay--from the blazing sun to the brazen moon. His prose and imagery are excellent, as is the psychological depth he reaches in each of the main characters. Their interactions are intriguing, and somehow you're kept guessing at what they're going to do even though you're made privy to their deepest thoughts. At times, the descriptions of those characters is wryly Austenian.
April 29, 2021
Am oscilat intre 2 si 3 stele.. Las la o parte traducerea indoielnica si imensele greseli de tipar, din care cea mai frecventa e virgula intre subiect si predicat (asta se pune ca greseala de tipar?). Prea multe cocktailuri, e aproape un leitmotiv, si doua treimi din carte nu se intampla aproape nimic. Romanul e salvat de exotismul Indiei, pe care o iubesc. In afara de asta, clisee, clisee, clisee...:(. 2.5. Pentru India.
July 21, 2025
Ugh - can't find private notes field again in goodreads.
Enjoyed the characters and the complicated romances.
Was like comfort-watching a black and white film from the period.
Pretty colonial in outlook.
Interesting a bi that people without money could still thrive, albeit unsustainably, in a Western-dominated high class high life.
Enjoyed the characters and the complicated romances.
Was like comfort-watching a black and white film from the period.
Pretty colonial in outlook.
Interesting a bi that people without money could still thrive, albeit unsustainably, in a Western-dominated high class high life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2025
6 out of 10. Much greatness here, but I did have stretches where I felt I was slogging through it. Insightful character studies. Must forgive extremely unlikely convergence in India of Minnesotans who once were close friends....and some other unlikely (and convenient to the narrative) occurrences.
January 1, 2018
Cette histoire à plusieurs voix est assez intéressante, on se laisse facilement entraîner dans les rues de Bombay et des Indes sous la plume agréable de Louis Bromfield !
May 2, 2020
The characters were terrific. Really well developed, and human. The writing was beautiful. The plot was good, though it dragged in places, until the last 1/3, when it was really compelling.
October 14, 2020
Good plot, but way too many curse words.
June 3, 2021
I read the slovene version, and I mean, the book is alright, nothing exceptional, but I did enjoy it :)
January 28, 2025
A very well written character study among the sights and smells of Bombay.
June 1, 2022
A nice classic 90s story
Was Bit slow for me
Was Bit slow for me
December 20, 2019
Nastali dažde je obľúbená kniha môjho otca. Pamätám si silnú atmosféru a indické reálie, takže niečo podobné som čakal aj tu. A naozaj, atmosféra bola skvelá, páčilo sa mi preniesť sa do koloniálnej Indie. Ale potom sa to zvrhlo. Viac ako o kolóniálnej Indii som sa dozvedel o koloniálnych Angličanoch - znudených, mierne znechutených a neustále pripitých.
September 12, 2011
A fantastic description of a city that never sleeps-the New York of the Orient- the plot centers around the Taj Mahal Hotel, 1930's just after my grandparents left through the portal of The Gateway Of India...a portrait of a vast humanity, good and evil, vice and virtue.
May 1, 2009
This was a book I read for a book group. Back then we thought that Bombay was an exotic place we'd like to visit. After the incident in Mumbai, new name for Bombay, maybe not.
Read
November 14, 2011No jaa...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2012
Fascinating journey to the days of the Raj with a group of landed gentry from England, struggling not to take England everywhere they go.
May 15, 2014
Intressant story, som kan bli jobbig då allt hänger ihop i ett kapitel.
March 2, 2021
Bromfield’s work continues to enrapture me.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews