''The Middle Passage: The Caribbean Revisited'' is a 1962 book-length essay and travelogue by V. S. Naipaul. 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, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

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

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

, and

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

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 greate ...

, 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.

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