World War II is at its zenith, and in South East Asia, the Allied forces have suffered great losses.
[3] As a reflection of these themes, the British characters let themselves be "trapped by codes and principles, which were in part to keep their own fears and doubts at bay.
[7] The main characters of the first novel are Daphne Manners, a young Englishwoman who has recently arrived in India, and her British-educated Indian paramour, Hari Kumar.
Salman Rushdie wrote, "The Quartet's form, tells us, in effect, that the history of the end of the Raj was largely composed of the doings of the officer class and its wife.
"[8] Conversely, Tariq Ali praised the books for providing a nuanced class analysis of the British in India and the Anglicized Indian upper classes who served the British during the Raj and later took control over the country after the independence and the partition.