The Continent of Circe is the result of the author s life-time effort to understand the nature of things. It describes the human situation in India after Independence. The author resorts to the historical method, and surprisingly encounters not staticity, but a continuing dynamic and even explosive process within which history and geography have worked to create dissimilar communities and endless conflicts. The highlight of this book is undoubtedly the author s imaginative interpretation of the Hindu personality based on original sources. Chaudhuri s language is forceful and expressive, and his arguments are well defined and lucid. The book is the author s most compelling and authoritative work a landmark in Indian history.