The Impressionist

Plot

Characters

• Pran Nath Razdan – The novel's protagonist, Pran Nath assumes several identities over the course of the plot. These include Rukhsana, the name given to him during his time spent with court eunuchs, Pretty Bobby, his name in Bombay, and Jonathan Bridgeman, his name in England, which he is able to assume through the identification papers of a British man who dies in his presence.
• Reverend Andrew Macfarlane – Andrew Macfarlane is a religious man working in Bombay. He pursues phrenology as a hobby, and employs Bobby in measuring skulls and photographing living subjects.
• Elspeth Macfarlane – Elspeth is married to Andrew, although she does not interact with her husband. She eschews Christianity in favor of Theosophy as a means to communicate with her sons, who both died in World War One.
• Astarte Chapel – Referred to as Star after Bridgemen meets her towards the end of the novel, Astarte is the daughter of an Oxford professor of Anthropology. Pran, as Jonathan, meets her at a party and the two enter into a relationship.

  Reception