Essential Tagore

Twenty-Fifth of Baisakh * I * Africa * I Saw in the Twilight * Romantic * The Night Train * Waking Up in the Morning I See * They Work * On the Banks of Roop-Naran * The Sun of the First Day * Dark Nights of Sorrow * On the Way to Creation *5. Songs * Devotional Songs * Patriotic Songs * Love Songs * Songs of Nature * Miscellaneous Songs *6. Plays *Roktokorobi *The Kingdom of Cards *7. Stories * The Return of Khoka Babu * The Legacy * Shubha * Mahamaya * The In-Between Woman * Hungry Stone * A Broken Nest * The Wife's Letter * The Final Word * The Tale of a Muslim Woman *8. Novels * From Gora * From Connections * From Farewell Song * From Four Chapters *9. Humor * Denge the Black Ant's Observations * Aryans and Non-Aryans * The Funeral * Ordeal * Testing the Student * The Invention of Shoes * From Out of Sync *10. Travel Writing * The City of Bombay * Crossing the Ocean * Travel * Stopford Brooke * The English Village and the Clergy * From Journey to Japan * Letter to Pratima Devi * From Letters from Russia * From In Persia * Chronology * Notes * Glossary * Further Reading * Acknowledgments * Contributors

Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian poet, playwright, novelist, composer, choreographer, educator and philosopher. So I propose as book of the year the splendid new anthology The Essential Tagore, edited by Fakrul Alam and Radha Chakravarty, which contains an unparalleled selection of poems, plays, stories, letters and more, mostly in excellent up-to-date translations. Initially known in the West as a mystical poet, Tagore was among India's most important social critics and thinkers; his depiction of the limits of women's lives is especially acute. -- Martha Nussbaum New Statesman 20111121 There have also been a number of anthologies of Tagore's works translated into English over the years...As of this year, a new anthology of Tagore's works in English edited by Fakrul Alam and Radha Chakravorty dwarfs all previous efforts...Because knowledge of Tagore has been so limited for so long, it's especially welcome to see The Essential Tagore. The anthology contains many fresh translations of Tagore's works, including some excellent contributions by Fakrul Alam himself, and I hope its availability will help to broaden perceptions about Tagore's writing. -- Amardeep Singh Open Letters Monthly 20120102 [While T.S.] Eliot is a major poet for a single era of one literary tradition, Tagore is the most important poet of all eras for an entire culture. It can be said without doubt that Tagore should be compared to the preeminent poets of all cultures: Greece's Homer, Italy's Virgil and Dante, Germany's Goethe, England's Shakespeare, and--though he is a novelist--Russia's Tolstoy...The Essential Tagore is a publication for readers all over the world, for all times. -- Mohit Ul-Alam Kali O Kalam [A] treasure trove...Imagine the task that was before the editors of The Essential Tagore. They have done a wonderful job, it is almost all gold. Here you can find some of the best of Tagore's Chekhovian stories, as well as his stunningly various poems (many revitalised by Fakrul Alam's translations), plus vivid extracts from the great novels, essays, letters, and travel writing. -- Barry Hill The Australian 20111217