The Life of Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay: Drifter and DreamerSharatchandra Chattopadhyay has been the most popular writer of novels and short stories in his native Bengaland in India at large. Despite this, he remains unrecognized in the English speaking world. Narasingha P. Sil fills this void by presenting a historical critical assessment of his upbringing and the experiences that influenced his masterful and magnificent work. The Life of Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay rescues the authentic man, a caste-conscious and patriarchal Brahmin of colonial Bengal, from the cuckoo land of gratuitous praise and panegyric showered on the Aparajeya Kathasilpi, the "invincible" wordsmith. The author exposes Sharatchandra's innate conservative worldview and his romantic platonic concept of human sexuality that inform all his love stories. In many respects Sharatchandra resembles his formidable European forbear, Jean Jacques Rousseau of Enlightenment France. The concluding chapter of Sil's biographical study introduces this pioneering comparison between the two men--a veritable tour de force. |
Contents
Chapter 1 | 1 |
Chapter 2 | 11 |
Chapter 3 | 23 |
Chapter 4 | 31 |
Chapter 5 | 41 |
Chapter 6 | 49 |
Chapter 7 | 61 |
Chapter 8 | 83 |
Chapter 10 | 107 |
Chapter 11 | 117 |
Chapter 12 | 127 |
Glossary | 143 |
| 147 | |
| 155 | |
About the Author | 161 |
Chapter 9 | 93 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Achala Adampur Aghornath Ananda Publishers Anandamath Arakṣaṇīyā Āśvin Baḍadidi Baiśākh Baje Shibpur Bandyopadhyay Bankim Bankimchandra Bengali Bengali literature Bhagalpur Bhāratbarṣa Bhatta Bibhuti Brahmin Brahmo Brahmo Samaj brother Buddhadeva Bose Burma Calcutta Caritrahīn caste characters Chaudhury cited in Ray colonial Confessions Debanandapur Debdas educated erotic essay father female fiction Gangopadhyay Girindranath Gobindapur Haridas Chattopadhyay Hindu Howrah human India intellectual Jean-Jacques Jean-Jacques Rousseau Kalikata Kamal Kedarnath Kiranmayi letter to Haridas Lilarani literary literature Mahim male married maternal uncles Matilal Mitra Mukhopadhyay Nārīr nationalist never Nirupama observed odyssey opium Pallīsamāj Panitras Pather Dābī Phalgun poet Praśna Private Limited protagonist published Rabindranath Radharani Radharani Debi Rājā Rangoon readers Rousseau Sabitri Sarat Paricay Śarat Patrābalī Śarat Sahitya Samagra Śaratcandra Saratcandrer Jībanī Sarkar Satish Sharat Sharat's letter Sharatchandra Shibpur Shrikanta social society Sourindramohan Śrīkānta stories and novels Surendranath Suresh Tagore Tagore's tion Upendra village widow wife woman women writing Yamuna young