Jhabvala prefers to use conventional techniques to characterize the tensions that exist when the progressive forces of change collide with the entrenched forces of tradition. These collisions produce moments of both tragedy and comedy, yet ultimately her vision is dark. In spite of moments of triumph and joy her characters are trapped within the class and social structures around them.
Jhabvala's conservative style has been compared to those of Anton Chekhov, E. M. Forster, and Henry James. Yet her style most resembles Jane Austen's, particularly in the close attention Jhabvala pays to nuances, small frailties, and manners of social convention. Like Austen she prefers to treat philosophical questions through her portraits of the intricacies of human relationships rather than through abstractions.
Ruth Prawer was born in Cologne, Germany, on 7 May 1927, the second of two children and only daughter of Marcus and Eleonara Cohn Prawer. Although Jhabvala experienced some happy years in Cologne, she has rarely returned to them in her fiction. The reluctance of her mother to depart resulted in the Prawers being one of the last Jewish families allowed to leave Nazi Germany. Jhabvala faced painful discrimination during her last years in Germany, a pain that was certainly amplified by the murder of her father's entire family in the Holocaust and his suicide in 1948.
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