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Perceptive and humorous, these three stories capture the essence of life in India. ... Read more

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A bleak, unrelenting tale of poverty and loss, Lawrence’s expertly crafted novella chillingly examines man’s increasing inability to love and be loved. With a Foreword by Anita Desai.

Looking for acceptance from his new congregation, the Reverend Ernest Lindley cannot ignore the fact that his parishioners are far from welcoming. Rather than confront such hostility, the Lindleys instead become ever more isolated: he “pale and miserable and neutral”; she “bitter and beaten by fear.” And having raised their children to be similarly dispassionate, it seems inevitable that their daughters should enter loveless marriages. While Mary becomes the dutiful wife, younger sister Louisa vows to experience love for herself—little knowing that such desires will divide an already broken family. Most famous for Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence (1885­1930) is universally regarded as one of the foremost figures of early 20thcentury literature. ... Read more

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Based on the life of the middle class intellectuals of Calcutta, it is an unforgettable story of a Bohemian brother and his two sisters caught in the cross-currents of changing social values. In many ways the story reflects a vivid picture of India's social transition - a phase in which the older elements are not altogether dead, and the emergent ones not fully evolved. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Beautifully accomplished
Anita Desai's short stories reflect the kaleidoscope of modern Indian life. They are set in contemporary Bombay and other cities and they evoke the colours, sounds, smells and white-hot heat of Indian cities. The stories are peopled with intensely individual characters: there is a painter living in a slum who fills his paintings with landscapes, birds and flowers he has never seen. There is an American woman who turns to the hippies in the Indian hills because she is unhappy with her life in the verdant countryside of Vermont. There is a man spiritually transformed by the surface texture of a melon. And many more. It is a finely written, atmospheric, memorable collection of short stories. As always with Anita Desai, her work is warm, perceptive, both funny and touched with sadness.

Anita Desai: One of the Most Infleuncial Authors of out Time
Anita Desai is a very famous author from India. In her story, "Games at Twilight," a peaceful game of hide & seek turns into an unforgettable nightmare for one boy. ... Read more

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Contributed articles. ... Read more

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In the popular imagination, Calcutta is a packed and pestilential sprawl, made notorious by the Black Hole and the works of Mother Teresa, Kipling called it a City of Dreadful Night, and a century later V.S. Naipaul, Gunter Grass, and Louis Malle revived its hellish image. This is the place where the West first truly encountered the East. Founded in the 1690s by East India Company merchants beside the Hugli River, Calcutta grew into India's capital and the second city of the British Empire during the Raj. Named the City of Palaces for its neoclassical mansions, Calcutta was also home to extraordinary Bengalis such as Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel laureate, and Satyajit Ray, among the geniuses of world cinema. Above all, Calcutta (renamed Kolkata in 2001) is a city of extremes, where refinement rubs shoulders with commercialism and political violence. Krishna Dutta explores these multiple paradoxes, giving personal insight into Calcutta's unique history and modern identity as reflected in its architecture, literature, cinema, and music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

History Illuminated
The book starts off with a short but very enjoyable foreward by Anita Desai. And then Ms. Dutta takes over. It is obvious Ms. Dutta, does not live in Calcutta any more (she is a resident of London). For she has that detached enjoyment given to those who look back and decide what is enjoyable while the unpleasant parts fade into memory.
She has done extensive research and the results are gratifying. Her writing is erudite as well as down to earth. That is not surprising, as we read when Macaulay introduced English as the official language, it was embraced the City's intelligentsia. Calcutta also produced some of the most virulent opposition to the British Raj as spirit of Independence took hold of the country. Of course the City is famous for its Literary figures and of the Performance Artistes. The author gives us a good review of those. A book worthy of being read by Indians and non-Indians but it will be specially cherished by Bengalis. For them, I would make it a must read.

Interesting read, better if you're a Bengali
One of the best aspects of this book, in my opinion, is that it is definitely not a celebration of the city and its ways. In fact, at times, Dutta is blatantly unsympathetic towards what has been - but by and large, it is an unbiased work, grand in its scope, addresses intangibles like culture, and threads together events, perhaps inconsequential in terms of political history, but definitely meaningful in making the city a little bit more than the sum of its history and people.

The book is well organized, and the text is lucid. The book spans the history of the city since it was a small village to Satyajit Ray - the Oscar winning film maker from the city. And though, throughout, the book is about people and events that shaped the city into what it is today, the author never losses sight of the fact that the book is not about any of them in particular, but what they meant to the city they lived in.

It is also a book of strife and struggle, of fascination with a foreign culture, of assimilation, of unlikely but not untimely great men. It is a book of nuances, of idiosyncrasies and of little forgotten by lanes in a big city. It is a book, too, of cowardice and indifference, and of hatred.

The details that the book captures can definitely be captured about any other place in any other part of of the world. However, the particular combination and degree to which these commonalities apply in the context of a place make that place a differentiated, not necessarily special - for that requires a personal identification - place, & this book, in my opinion, captures the 'flavour' of the city.

And, just by the way, I do not like the city myself so much, fascinated as I was by its cultural and literary history.

S!

Calcuttans:RISE and stop the ghouls from maligning your city
It was heartening to see C Sengoopta take on David Foley with some uncharacteristic vim - despite the fanciful spelling of his surname I presume he is a Bengali. We have let the world malign our fair city for too long - we are meek and we are reluctant/afraid to challenge the west. Ashutosh Chatterji says falteringly 'perhaps unwittingly' the perpetrators have heaped insult on Calcutta. He knows as well as I do it was Mother Teresa and her extra-ordinary propaganda machinery that caused Calcutta to have become a metaphor for extreme degradation and squalor. It is the likes of David Foley that seek only poverty in Calcutta who are dispppointed to find a book which talks about a different aspect of the city. Shock, Horror! If this book gets to be known what would the Foleys of this world do? What would happen to the billion dollar Catholic charity industry which feeds like vultures on other people's misery - real and supposed?

Disregard David Foley
David Foley's response is typical of the self-important, know-it-all Westerner.Tell any amount of lies about Calcutta to these people (as the charity industry does all the time) and they'll believe it.Some of them will send money to Mother Teresa with tears flowing from their eyes; a few might even pack their bags and go out to save the poor heathens from themselves.(As Foley seems to have done.)But say one good thing about Calcutta and the Foleys of the world will condemn you for being 'nationalistic' or worse.Judge Krishna Dutta's book on its merits, not on the basis of what some self-appointed Western pundit thinks.

Let's Not Distort The Issue
Unfortunately, this book, and the review of it offered by Ashutosh Chatterji, is more about defending Calcutta from the western view of it than it is about the "cultural and literary history" that is the title of the book.I bought this book in Calcutta so that I might have a more in-depth history of the place I was visiting.Instead, I got a book full of opinions and one-sided propaganda.This is definitely an Indian's nationalistic view of the city of Calcutta and not an objective history lesson, as the book's title advertises.Whereas Krishna Dutta is indeed a gifter writer, she, or her publishing company, should have come up with a less-misleading title.Next time, pick up the "History of the Republican Party" by Rush Limbaugh or "The Cultural History of Russia" by Josef Stalin - just kidding of course. ... Read more

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Winner of the prestigious Italian literary prize, Premio Vareggio, Words Are Stones offers an insightful and authentic portrait of Sicily and its people. Foreword by Anita Desai.

Over a number of years, Italian writer Carlo Levi made three journeys to Sicily. He went on to chronicle his travels, penning a series of short essays that capture in miniature the essence of Sicilian life: its traditions, culture, and breathtaking landscape. Here, gathered in one comprehensive volume, these writings offer a rare and observant portrayal of an island whose people—though burdened by poverty, political upheaval, backwardness, and murder—retained a true generosity and graciousness of spirit. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

A Shard of a Novel
This slim volume contains what E.M.F. managed to write before writer's block set in. There is no real plot - the book ends before the plot has any chance to develop - so what you get is a handful of characters and scenes in typically Forsterian style.
One cannot help but wonder - would it be a good novel? My impression is that it would not. Certain elements and scenes have been used before (close reading reveals especially similarities to A Room with a View), and there is little new and striking. The central conflict between action and ideas would probably be too little to sustain another novel after Howards End.
In short - a necessary reading for any true Forsterian and it is very good that it is finally available in a mass-market paperback (the Abinger edition is very difficult to find) but not necessarily for the general reading public. General reading public, however, should immediately aim for the next novel Forster managed to complete: A Passage to India.

Brilliant
If you've ever read and loved any of the novels of E. M. Forster, be sure to read this one too. Forster chose not to finish it, but it works brilliantly as a self-contained novella, telling the story of two men who represent different idealsand whose paths cross in surprising ways. Swift, intense, insightful, classic. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, published by American University in Cairo on January 1, 2009. The length of the article is 8305 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Scholarship and integrity: Matthew Arnold's "The Scholar-Gipsy" and Anita Desai's "Scholar and Gypsy".(Critical essay)
Author: Peter Cook
Publication: Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2009
Publisher: American University in Cairo
Issue: 29Page: 195(21)

Article Type: Critical essay

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Sarojini Sahoo, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Radhika Jha, Anita Desai, Auvaiyar, Gita Mehta, Amrita Pritam, Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, Abha Dawesar, Rooma Mehra, Anita Nair. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Sarojini Sahoo (née en 1956) est une écrivaine féministe indienne qui a reçu le Prix de l'Académie Sahitya d'Orissa en 1993, le Prix Jhankar en 1992, le Prix de la Foire du Livre de Bhubaneswar et le Prix Prajatantra. Née dans la petite ville de Dhenkânâl en Orissa (Inde), Sarojini est titulaire d'un Master et d'un Doctorat en Littérature Oriya et d'une Licence en Droit obtenue à l'Université Utkal. Actuellement, elle enseigne dans une faculté à Belpahar, Jharsuguda, Orissa. Elle est la seconde fille d'Ishwar Chandra Sahoo (décédé) et de Nalini Devi (décédée) et est mariée avec Jagadish Mohanaty, un écrivain vétéran d'Orissa. Ils ont un fils et une fille. Elle a publié dix anthologies de contes, en Oriya, à savoir : Elle a reçu le Prix de l'Académie Sahitya d'Orissa et le Prix de la Foire du Livre de Bhubaneswar pour son recueil de contes Amrutara Pratikshare. Sept nouvelles ont été publiées jusqu'à maintenant : Sa nouvelle Gambhiri Ghara (La Chambre obscure) a été un bestseller en littérature Oriya. Ses nouvelles sont réputées pour leur franchise sur la sexualité et leur perspective féministe. Cette nouvelle a été traduit en Bengali (Bangladesh) sous le titre Mitya Gerosthali (ISBN 984-404-287-9) et a été publiée par Anupam Prakashani, Dhaka, Bangladesh, en 2007. Elle a déjà été traduite en anglais par Mahendra Dash. Pakshibasa est sa nouvelle la plus récente, publiée dans le journal Oriya The Chitra en octobre 2007. Elle parle d'une tribu opprimée d'Orissa occidental, qui ramasse des os d'anim...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on February 18, 2001. The length of the article is 909 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Anita Desai llega a España con Ayuno, festín: El inglés de la periferia.(TT: Anita Desai arrives at Spain with uninformed, banquet: the English of the periphery.)(Entrevista)
Author: Angel Vivas
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 18, 2001
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 70

Article Type: Entrevista

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