''The Middle Passage: The Caribbean Revisited'' is a 1962 book-length essay and

travelogue Travelogue may refer to: Genres * Travel literature, a record of the experiences of an author travelling * Travel documentary A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or online series that describes travel in general or t ...

V. S. Naipaul Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...

. It is his first book-length work of non-fiction. The book covers a year-long trip Naipaul took through

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

, and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

in 1961. As well as giving his own impressions, Naipaul refers to the work of earlier travellers such as

Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greates ...

, who described a similar itinerary in ''The Traveller's Tree'' (1950). Naipaul addresses a range of topics including the legacy of slavery and colonialism, race relations, the roles of immigrants from India in the various countries, and differences in language, culture, and economics. The book was poorly received in Trinidad and other Caribbean nations on account of Naipaul's "patronising attitude" towards these colonies and ex-colonies, his apparent approval of imperialism, and for other reasons. SEE https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bpkt

Notes

1961 non-fiction books British travel books Books by V. S. Naipaul Books about the Caribbean Macmillan Publishers books English non-fiction books {{postcolonialism-stub