A Thematic Study of Tagore's Novels

by Indira Chatterjee

This book is confined strictly to an understanding of Tagore as a novel writer. A book on Tagore needs no publicity. Tagore, the First Nobel Laureate of India is undoubtedly a genius of our times, a veritable Encyclopaedia and the best representative of Indian creativity. There is no aspect of Indian life which does not find expressions in his writings. Tagore was man to whom nothing that was human could be alien. To us he was, indeed, the high priest of life and humanity. He saw life whole and thrilled to it with the joy that is "the other side to strength". He touched and elucidated life everywhere and in turn life showered him countless bounties... To Rabindranath every experience was an adventure, every phenomenon a miracle and every ordeal turned into Ananddhara Bohichhe Bhuvane (He wrote this song just after death of his dear one). And the value of Kufe was revealed to him in the context of universal love. Although about three hundred volumes of his works manifest the extraordinary versatility of his towering genius, his global reputation as a poet, playwright, novelist, thinker, educationist and a prophet could find its way through limited renderings of them in other languages and, especially, in English. It is strange, however, that not much attempt has been made so far to highlight his achievements as fiction writer although he contributed as significantly to it as poetry. The present book displays multifarious aspects of human life as portrayed in his novels, life of common persona of today's times. The basic ideas portrayed in the novels open out at least one aspect of this versatile genius who has become a legend and who is considered not as an individual but as an era. As there has been not much detailed study of Tagore's novels so far this book will be the first and original attempt at assessing critically and objectively this important fact of Tagore's genius.