It's actually a brilliant piece of writing in the original, a gripping read, and nails the canard of BC's alleged sectarian beliefs: he couldn't have written that laughing cavalier of a Muslim Paladin prince, or the mysterious, beautiful, gracious Ayesha, serene and untouchable in her dignity as she decks her romantic rival in her own jewels, if he'd been a Muslim baiter.
If you like it in translation, and if the publishers have such intentions, then you're lucky: just wait for Devi Chaudhurani: somewhere between The Tollgate and The Masqueraders, if I have to put in in terms of western writing which remains a clear register below BC's delectable tale of how a slighted wife gives her husband his come-uppance. The style strikes a deadly mean between Heyer and Dumas. Effortless writing, Bengali prose springing fully-armed out of the brows of Zeus, guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of all Happy-Ending marshmallows. Enough incentive to learn Bengali to the difficult level needed to read the originals: trust me, just these two are worth it, and there's the sweep and breadth of Saratchandra lying around after that. Read me at: --- On Thu, 6/1/11, Supriya Nair <[email protected]> wrote: From: Supriya Nair <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [silk] Book recommendations To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, 6 January, 2011, 11:47 Random House has just published the first two translations in their new Classics series, both from the Bengali: one is Bankim's Durgeshnandini, which is widely considered the first novel written in an Indian language. The other is called "Three Women" and is a collection of three Tagore novellas. I haven't finished the Tagore yet but Durgeshnandini is interesting and absorbing for a number of reasons. I loved Alice Albinia's 'Empires of the Indus,' which came out a couple of years ago, both here and in the UK. Albinia treks up the Indus from mouth to source, exploring geography, history and community over each region she covers. She's a superb writer and the book deserved, I think, more international attention than it got. I get the feeling this book keeps cropping up on Silk discussions but since it hasn't in this thread, I bring it up again. Also there are reprints of four RK Narayan novels in the new Penguin Modern Classics editions if you need to add/replace to your library. I'm not a big fan of the new Modern Classics cover designs, or the Pico Iyer series introduction that they've now appended to each, but they're shiny all the same. And they'd probably make good gifts for first-time Narayan readers. If you happen to be looking for frothy, frivolous novels I think Anuja Chauhan wrote two of the best ones to come out in India over the last couple of years, The Zoya Factor and Battle for Bittora: I kind of laughed helplessly through the latter, in particular. Pretty sure you're already down with Daniyal Mueenuddin and Gyan Prakash and whoever else came out in the US simultaneously. On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 9:42 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian <[email protected]> wrote: Suresh Ramasubramanian [05/01/11 19:59 -0800]: Samanth is silklist material and udhay's been trying to entice him over for quite some time. Samanth being maxed out on email already, will probably take time to do that. amazon threw this out as a suggested link for following fish doesnt seem too bad http://www.amazon.com/As-Was-Written-Sujatha-Hampton/dp/0312584121/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1 -- roswitha.blogspot.com | roswitha.tumblr.com
