Big Books of 2026
Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth’s Followers (1,700)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo

Add New
Videos

Una's Lecture: A Conversation with Vikram Seth
Add a comment
Beautiful People with Vikram Seth
1 comment

More videos…

Vikram Seth


Born
in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, India
June 20, 1952

Website

Genre
Literature & Fiction, Biographies & Memoirs, Poetry


Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.

During the course of his doctorate studies at Stanford, he did his field work in China and translated Hindi and Chinese poetry into English. He returned to Delhi via Xinjiang and Tibet which led to a travel narrative From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983) which won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse (1986) was his first novel describing the experiences of a group of friends who live in California. A Suitable Boy (1993), an epic of Indian life set in the 1950s, got him the WH Smith Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

His poetry includes The Humble Administrator's ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 4.03 · 77,530 ratings · 5,698 reviews · 60 distinct works • Similar authors
A Suitable Boy (A Bridge of...
4.11 avg rating — 49,873 ratings — published 1993 — 108 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
An Equal Music
3.80 avg rating — 11,077 ratings — published 1999 — 75 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
The Golden Gate
4.02 avg rating — 4,847 ratings — published 1986 — 26 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Two Lives
3.68 avg rating — 3,768 ratings — published 2005 — 48 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
From Heaven Lake: Travels T...
4.04 avg rating — 2,108 ratings — published 1983 — 40 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Beastly Tales from Here and...
4.09 avg rating — 1,015 ratings — published 1992 — 23 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
A Suitable Boy, Vol. 1
4.17 avg rating — 951 ratings — published 1993 — 19 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
All You Who Sleep Tonight: ...
4.13 avg rating — 705 ratings — published 1990 — 13 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
A Suitable Boy, Vol. 3
4.34 avg rating — 419 ratings — published 1993 — 8 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
A Suitable Boy, Vol. 2
4.32 avg rating — 406 ratings — published 1995 — 18 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
More books by Vikram Seth…

Series by Vikram Seth

A Suitable Boy A Suitable Girl
(2 books)
by
4.11 avg rating — 50,003 ratings

Quotes by Vikram Seth  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“God save us from people who mean well.”
― Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy
tags: god, good-intentions, humanity, religion
1985 likes
Like

“But I too hate long books: the better, the worse. If they're bad they merely make me pant with the effort of holding them up for a few minutes. But if they're good, I turn into a social moron for days, refusing to go out of my room, scowling and growling at interruptions, ignoring weddings and funerals, and making enemies out of friends. I still bear the scars of Middlemarch.”
― Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy
tags: reading
265 likes
Like

“I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.”
― Vikram Seth, From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet
tags: future-nostalgias, nostalgia
161 likes
Like

Polls

2016 1st Quarter Long Read

1872, Middlemarch by George Eliot, 904 pages
 
  25 votes, 17.9%

 
  17 votes, 12.1%

1853, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, 1017 pages
 
  15 votes, 10.7%

1869, The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 667 pages
 
  15 votes, 10.7%

1965, Dune by Frank Herbert, 604 pages
 
  15 votes, 10.7%

1870, Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 733 pages
 
  7 votes, 5.0%

 
  7 votes, 5.0%

 
  6 votes, 4.3%

1982, North and South by John Jakes, 812 pages
 
  6 votes, 4.3%

 
  5 votes, 3.6%

1928, Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford, 836 pages
 
  5 votes, 3.6%

1993, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, 1474 pages
 
  4 votes, 2.9%

1985, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, 945 pages
 
  3 votes, 2.1%

1836, Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens, 688 pages
 
  3 votes, 2.1%

1987, The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher, 656 pages
 
  2 votes, 1.4%

1983, Helliconia by Brian W. Aldiss, 1305 pages
 
  2 votes, 1.4%

1980, Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, 912 pages
 
  1 vote, 0.7%

1948, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, 740 pages
 
  1 vote, 0.7%

1863, Romola by George Eliot, 688 pages
 
  1 vote, 0.7%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

140 total votes
More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Winter Challenge 2010-2011 Completed Tasks (do not delete any posts) 2578 1107 Feb 28, 2011 09:05PM  
Bookmarks Subscri...: The Match Game 760 228 Apr 09, 2011 02:22PM  
Reading the Chunk...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Contemporary Chunkster Nominations 178 149 Jul 22, 2011 09:17PM  
Nothing But Readi...: Shay's Reading Challenges 54 139 Sep 30, 2011 06:52AM  
Historical Fictio...: Mini-Challenge #3 - September 2011 - REPORT POINTS HERE 261 232 Oct 01, 2011 03:06PM  
The Life of a Boo...: Shay's 2011 TBR Challenge 26 65 Nov 18, 2011 08:50PM  
One Million Pages...: This topic has been closed to new comments. November 2011 Challenge, Part Two 34 22 Nov 28, 2011 04:04AM  


Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Vikram to Goodreads.