Stories from Saratchandra: Innocence and Reality

by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, Anindita Mukhopadhyay

Category Literature & Fiction
Format Paperback
Imprint Rupa
Price 295

ISBN: 978-81-291-5040-0
Pages: 195 pages
Date: 20 January 2018

ABOUT THIS BOOK

‘Some time ago, a sudden rumour spread across our region that unless three children were sacrificed, the railway bridge over Roopnarayan just could not be constructed. Two small boys had already been buried alive under one of the pillions, and only one more needed to be caught…’

This book is a collection of twelve widely acclaimed short stories of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, one of the doyens of Bengali literature. Divided into two sections, the first bunch of stories portray childhood in all its unburdened innocence while the latter section leads on to deeper sensibilities—the everyday experience of casteism, the lived reality of social hierarchy, and the bonds of almost filial affection forged between man and animal that sustain both.

Stories from Saratchandra shows Saratchandra’s keen eye as a social commentator, presenting a vivid picture of life in rural Bengal during the early twentieth century.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Saratchandra Chattopadhyay (1876–1938) was one of the most prolific novelists and short story writers from Bengal in the early twentieth century. Among his novels, his most notable works include Baikunther Will, Devdas and Srikanta; stories such as ‘Mejdidi’ and ‘Mohesh’ rank among the most loved. Saratchandra’s powerful portrayals of human, economic and social distress, colonialism, middle-class lives and the rural world are still widely read, translated and have been adapted into films.

Anindita Mukhopadhyay has a doctorate from School of Oriental and African Studies, London and currently teaches history at the University of Hyderabad and was formerly fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. She has earlier translated Rabindranath Tagore’s Shesher Kobita, The Last Poem (Rupa, 2007) and authored Behind the Mask: The Cultural Definition of the Legal Subject (Oxford University Press, 2013).