All About H. Hatterr: Character Mind Map & Summary
The key characters of G. V. Desani's All About H. Hatterr (1948), grouped into branches, with the key episodes, a quick summary and the exam facts that come up again and again in UGC NET.
The Character Mind Map
Tap any name to open the details.
H. Hatterr
A half-European, half-Malay orphan brought up by Christian missionaries in India. Hungry for wisdom, he visits seven sages in seven places, and each lesson ends in a comic disaster.
Ending: no wiser, but still cheerful👑 Companions
On the road to wisdomBanerrjiHatterr's friend
Role: A Bengali who speaks in grand, bookish English and admires Hatterr's adventures.
The Seven SagesTeachers of wisdom
Role: Each gives a lesson about life; each lesson goes wrong for Hatterr.
The MissionariesHatterr's guardians
Role: Raise him and give him his English.
Key Episodes
The turning points examiners love to ask about.
Quick Summary
The story, stage by stage.
Stage 1Autobiography
- Hatterr introduces himself and his mixed origins.
Stage 2The Quest
- He decides to learn from the sages of India.
Stage 3Encounters
- He is cheated, fooled and laughed at.
Stage 4Wisdom?
- He ends with a cheerful acceptance of life.
Must-Know Exam Facts
Quick points for UGC NET, SET and PGT.
Title
First published as All About Mr Hatterr, A Gesture (1948).
Praise
T. S. Eliot said he had never met anything quite like it; Anthony Burgess admired it.
Importance
A forerunner of Rushdie's playful hybrid English.
Genre
Comic, experimental, picaresque.
Additional Revision Notes
More plot, character and literary details for UGC NET English revision.
Seven-Part Quest
Hatterr seeks enlightenment through encounters with seven sages in seven cities. The pattern resembles a philosophical quest, but each episode also punctures pretensions to ready-made wisdom.
Experimental Language
Desani's prose blends registers, idioms and verbal play rather than imitating formal British English. This makes the book an important early experiment in the expressive possibilities of Indian English fiction.
Literary Connections
The comic episodic form invites comparison with picaresque fiction and later linguistic experimentation associated with Salman Rushdie. Notice the distance between lofty teaching and Hatterr's experiences.
Indian Literature
100+ Key Works of Indian Literature
All these character mind maps in one printed book.
