Language | English |
---|---|
ISBN-10 | 0-14-028919-4 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0140289190 |
No of pages | 642 |
Font Size | Medium |
Book Publisher | Penguin India |
Published Date | 23 Jan 2002 |
R. K. Narayan was born in Madras, South India, and educated there and at Maharaja’s College in Mysore. His first novel Swami and Friends (1935) and its successor The Bachelor of Arts (1937) are both set in the enchanting fictional territory of Malgudi.
Other ‘Malgudi’ novels are The Dark Room (1938), The English Teacher (1945), Mr. Sampath (1949), The Financial Expert (1952), The Man Eater of Malgudi (1961), The Vendor of Sweets (1967), The Painter of Signs (1977), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983), and Talkative Man (1986).
His novel The Guide (1958) won him the National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, his country’s highest literary honor.
He was awarded in 1980 the A.C. Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature and in 1981 he was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
As well as five collections of short stories, A Horse and Two Goats, An Astrologer’s Day and Other Stories, Lawley Road, Under the Banyan Tree and Malgudi Days, he has published a travel book, The Emerald Route, three collections of essays, A Writer’s Nightmare, Next Sunday and Reluctant Guru, three books on the Indian epics, and a volume of memoirs. My Days.
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In a writing career spanning seven decades, R.K. Narayan enthralled and entertained generations of readers with his deftly etched characters, his uniquely stylized language and his wry sense of humor. A storyteller par excellence, Narayan’s greatest achievement perhaps lies in creating and peopling the imagined landscapes of a town called Malouda, located somewhere in South India, which has come alive in story after story in such a way that it has now become a part of modern Indian folklore.
This collection brings between two covers some of the most memorable fiction that has emerged from R.K. Narayan’s pen. It contains The Man-eater of Malouda, which tells the story of Nataraja, owner of a small printing press, and his houseguest Vasu, a taxidermist, who moves into Nataraja’s attic with a menagerie of dead animals.
There is also Talkative Man, a novella that starts off with the arrival on the Delhi train of a stranger in a blue suit who takes up residence in the station waiting room and refuses to budge. Also included here are some of the most popular and striking short stories Narayan has written: from the celebrated ‘A Horse and Two Goats’ and ‘Salt and Sawdust’ to gems like ‘An Astrologer’s Day’, ‘The Shelter’ and ‘Under the Banyan Tree’. Encapsulating the very best of R.K. Narayan’s remarkable output, this is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest modern writers in the English language.