''The Householder'' is a 1960 English-language novel by

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (; 7 May 19273 April 2013) was a British author and screenwriter. She is best known for her collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, made up of director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. In 1951, Jhabvala ma ...

. It is about a young man named Prem who has recently moved from the first stage of his life, a student, to the second stage of his life, a

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

er. The book is a

bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age), in which character change is impo ...

, which is a story where the protagonist develops mind and character as he passes from childhood through various experiences usually through a spiritual crisis into maturity. A film adaptation of ''The Householder'' was released in 1963, and Jhabvala started her career as a screenwriter by co-writing its screenplay with director

James Ivory James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. For many years, he worked extensively with Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, his domestic as well as professional partner, and with screen ...

. It was also Ivory's directorial debut (not including documentary shorts) as well as his first collaboration with producer

Ismail Merchant Ismail Merchant (born Ismail Noor Muhammad Abdul Rahman (25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005)) was an Indian film producer, director and screenwriter. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included Directo ...

.''The Householder'' overview at Merchant Ivory website
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Characters

*Prem *Indu, Prem's Wife *Prem's mother *Mr. Khanna, the principal of the college where Prem works as a teacher *Mrs. Khanna *Mr. Chaddha, the history teacher *Mr. Sohan Lal, the math teacher *Raj, Prem's high school friend *Hans Loewe, Kitty, and Mohammed, white people living in India and their servant *Mr. Seigal, Prem's landlord

References

1960 British novels Indian bildungsromans Novels set in Delhi Indian novels adapted into films Postcolonial novels British novels adapted into films 1960 Indian novels John Murray (publishing house) books {{postcolonialism-stub