What do you think?
Rate this book
The Bachelor of Arts
Chandran is a good-natured, popular, rather dreamy student who works hard to pass his exams. Newly graduated, he is unsure how he wants to spend his future. And then, one evening, walking by the river, he sees Malathi, a beautiful young girl dressed in a radiant green sari But the course of love does not run smoothly. Not all is well in Chandran's horoscope and while some customs can be forgotten, others must be strictly observed: customs that temporarily cause Chandran to turn his back on the legendary Malgudi altogether.
266 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
86 people are currently reading
2321 people want to read
About the author
R.K. Narayan
143 books1,930 followersR. K. Narayan is among the best known and most widely read Indian novelists who wrote in English.
R.K. Narayan was born in Madras, South India, in 1906, and educated there and at Maharaja's College in Mysore. His first novel, Swami and Friends and its successor, The Bachelor of Arts, are both set in the enchanting fictional territory of Malgudi and are only two out of the twelve novels he based there. In 1958 Narayan's work The Guide won him the National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, his country's highest literary honor.
In addition to his novels, Narayan has authored five collections of short stories, including A Horse and Two Goats, Malguidi Days, and Under the Banyan Tree, two travel books, two volumes of essays, a volume of memoirs, and the re-told legends Gods, Demons and Others, The Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. In 1980 he was awarded the A.C. Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature and in 1982 he was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Most of Narayan's work, starting with his first novel Swami and Friends (1935), captures many Indian traits while retaining a unique identity of its own. He was sometimes compared to the American writer William Faulkner, whose novels were also grounded in a compassionate humanism and celebrated the humour and energy of ordinary life.
Narayan who lived till age of ninety-four, died in 2001. He wrote for more than fifty years, and published until he was eighty seven. He wrote fourteen novels, five volumes of short stories, a number of travelogues and collections of non-fiction, condensed versions of Indian epics in English, and the memoir My Days.
-Wikipedia & Amazon.co.uk
R.K. Narayan was born in Madras, South India, in 1906, and educated there and at Maharaja's College in Mysore. His first novel, Swami and Friends and its successor, The Bachelor of Arts, are both set in the enchanting fictional territory of Malgudi and are only two out of the twelve novels he based there. In 1958 Narayan's work The Guide won him the National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, his country's highest literary honor.
In addition to his novels, Narayan has authored five collections of short stories, including A Horse and Two Goats, Malguidi Days, and Under the Banyan Tree, two travel books, two volumes of essays, a volume of memoirs, and the re-told legends Gods, Demons and Others, The Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. In 1980 he was awarded the A.C. Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature and in 1982 he was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Most of Narayan's work, starting with his first novel Swami and Friends (1935), captures many Indian traits while retaining a unique identity of its own. He was sometimes compared to the American writer William Faulkner, whose novels were also grounded in a compassionate humanism and celebrated the humour and energy of ordinary life.
Narayan who lived till age of ninety-four, died in 2001. He wrote for more than fifty years, and published until he was eighty seven. He wrote fourteen novels, five volumes of short stories, a number of travelogues and collections of non-fiction, condensed versions of Indian epics in English, and the memoir My Days.
-Wikipedia & Amazon.co.uk
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 237 reviews
November 7, 2020
Around 10 or 11 years ago, I was fortunate enough to be unemployed and be living near a wonderful library. I used this time not to crazily send off job applications (I did that too!) but to read as many books as I could get my greedy hands on. I inhaled every single book by R.K. Narayan, and decided I need to have him in my library. I think it's time for a re-read, this time of my own copies.
The Bachelor of Arts is about the youth of a young Brahmin man called Chandran. The tale takes us through his college life, his love for a young girl, his flirting with ascetism, and then his growing up through employment and marriage. It's a simple enough tale, with not many twists and turns, but it was still brilliant in the way it pulls you in. And the icing on the cake is that it's based in the delightful but fictional town of Malgudi.
The book was written in 1937, so it was interesting to see a snapshot of life in India pre-independence. The characters were brilliant and so real in their portrayal. People were obsessed with simple everyday pleasures. I enjoyed the crazy nationalist poet (a nod to the independence struggle in full swing at the time), the friendly and humorous British Principal, and Chandran's father's obsession with the flowers in the garden.
Chandran's love story was rather weird, though pretty typical for a repressed culture like India used to be (and still is in many places). His obsession with the girl and his chafing under the formalities are real enough. The age difference was creepy, as the girl was only 14 as opposed to Chandran's 22. But it was how things were in the 1930s.
Narayan writes like my grandmother tells stories! And maybe that's the charm of his books. Who doesn't like their grandmother's stories?
The Bachelor of Arts is about the youth of a young Brahmin man called Chandran. The tale takes us through his college life, his love for a young girl, his flirting with ascetism, and then his growing up through employment and marriage. It's a simple enough tale, with not many twists and turns, but it was still brilliant in the way it pulls you in. And the icing on the cake is that it's based in the delightful but fictional town of Malgudi.
The book was written in 1937, so it was interesting to see a snapshot of life in India pre-independence. The characters were brilliant and so real in their portrayal. People were obsessed with simple everyday pleasures. I enjoyed the crazy nationalist poet (a nod to the independence struggle in full swing at the time), the friendly and humorous British Principal, and Chandran's father's obsession with the flowers in the garden.
Chandran's love story was rather weird, though pretty typical for a repressed culture like India used to be (and still is in many places). His obsession with the girl and his chafing under the formalities are real enough. The age difference was creepy, as the girl was only 14 as opposed to Chandran's 22. But it was how things were in the 1930s.
Narayan writes like my grandmother tells stories! And maybe that's the charm of his books. Who doesn't like their grandmother's stories?
Read
August 9, 2012Do we outgrow love? Do we outgrow hope? Do we outgrow Narayan?
No!!! Never!!!
Narayan's stories are the best because they are simple. Not only is Malgudi familiar to me, but I have lived many incidents that occurs there. Chandran's extensive study timetables... now who among us has not wasted many precious hours preparing those! This book too is a happy making book in a very Narayan way.
No!!! Never!!!
Narayan's stories are the best because they are simple. Not only is Malgudi familiar to me, but I have lived many incidents that occurs there. Chandran's extensive study timetables... now who among us has not wasted many precious hours preparing those! This book too is a happy making book in a very Narayan way.
July 16, 2023
অনেকদিন পরে আর. কে. নারায়ণের উপন্যাস পড়লাম। এই উপন্যাসটা প্রথম পড়েছিলাম আজ থেকে প্রায়... পনেরো বছর আগে!! তখন কেমন লেগেছিলো সেসব আর কিছুই মনে নেই এখন। নারায়ণের সবকটা উপন্যাস সেইসময় একটানা পড়ে শেষ করেছিলাম। এবারও তাঁর সবকটা উপন্যাস একটানা পড়ে ফেলবো ঠিক করেছি। দেখা যাক কদ্দুর এগোনো যায়।
"স্বামী অ্যান্ড ফ্রেন্ডস"কে যদি কিশোর-উপন্যাস হিসেবে গণ্য করি, তাহলে প্রাপ্তবয়স্ক বিষয় নিয়ে এটিই নারায়ণের প্রথম উপন্যাস। গত শতকের তিরিশের দশকে দক্ষিণ ভারতের একটি ছোটো মফস্বল শহরের গল্প (কাল্পনিক এই শহরের নামটি আমরা সবাই জানি— "মালগুড়ি")। সেই শহরের চন্দ্রন নামের একজন যুবকের গল্প। একটি সম্পূর্ণরূপে হারিয়ে যাওয়া সময় এবং পরিবেশের গল্প। উপন্যাসটিতে লেখকের আত্মজৈবনিক কিছু উপাদান আছে।
কাহিনির চরিত্রদের কিছু কিছু চিন্তাভাবনা, আচার-আচরণ, আজকের দিনে আমাদের কাছে আপত্তিকর বলে মনে হবে। কিন্তু খেয়াল রাখতে হবে, লেখক যদি উপন্যাসের চরিত্রদের "আদর্শ চরিত্র" হিসেবে দেখাতেন, তাহলে তখনকার মানুষের চিন্তাভাবনার ব্যাপারে আমরা কীভাবে জানতে পারতাম? সাহিত্যের থেকে আমরা কী প্রত্যাশা করি? বাস্তবধর্মিতা? নাকি স্যানিটাইজার দিয়ে জীবাণুমুক্ত করা— "সময়ের থেকে এগিয়ে থাকা"— একটি কাল্পনিক আদর্শ জগত? কথাসাহিত্য পড়ার সময় আমি সময়ের থেকে এগিয়ে থাকতে চাইনা। সময়টাকে চিনতে চাই।
নারায়ণের গদ্যশৈলী আমার ভীষণ প্রিয়। কী সুন্দর ফুরফুরে লেখা। কোনো চালাকি নেই। বাচালতা নেই। বাক্যগঠনে এবং শব্দচয়নে জটিলতা নেই। উপদেশ দেওয়ার চেষ্টা নেই। "দার্শনিক বার্তা" দেওয়ার চেষ্টা নেই। পরিমিত ছিমছাম কয়েকটি রেখার টানে ফুটিয়ে তুলেছেন একটি অল্পবয়েসি ছেলের জীবনে প্রথমবার প্রেমে পড়ার ইতিবৃত্ত। প্রথমবার কষ্ট পাওয়ার ইতিবৃত্ত। কষ্টের মাঝেও কয়েক টুকরো মুচকি হাসি গুঁজে রাখতে ভুলে যাননি নারায়ণ। জীবন তো এরকমই...
"স্বামী অ্যান্ড ফ্রেন্ডস"কে যদি কিশোর-উপন্যাস হিসেবে গণ্য করি, তাহলে প্রাপ্তবয়স্ক বিষয় নিয়ে এটিই নারায়ণের প্রথম উপন্যাস। গত শতকের তিরিশের দশকে দক্ষিণ ভারতের একটি ছোটো মফস্বল শহরের গল্প (কাল্পনিক এই শহরের নামটি আমরা সবাই জানি— "মালগুড়ি")। সেই শহরের চন্দ্রন নামের একজন যুবকের গল্প। একটি সম্পূর্ণরূপে হারিয়ে যাওয়া সময় এবং পরিবেশের গল্প। উপন্যাসটিতে লেখকের আত্মজৈবনিক কিছু উপাদান আছে।
কাহিনির চরিত্রদের কিছু কিছু চিন্তাভাবনা, আচার-আচরণ, আজকের দিনে আমাদের কাছে আপত্তিকর বলে মনে হবে। কিন্তু খেয়াল রাখতে হবে, লেখক যদি উপন্যাসের চরিত্রদের "আদর্শ চরিত্র" হিসেবে দেখাতেন, তাহলে তখনকার মানুষের চিন্তাভাবনার ব্যাপারে আমরা কীভাবে জানতে পারতাম? সাহিত্যের থেকে আমরা কী প্রত্যাশা করি? বাস্তবধর্মিতা? নাকি স্যানিটাইজার দিয়ে জীবাণুমুক্ত করা— "সময়ের থেকে এগিয়ে থাকা"— একটি কাল্পনিক আদর্শ জগত? কথাসাহিত্য পড়ার সময় আমি সময়ের থেকে এগিয়ে থাকতে চাইনা। সময়টাকে চিনতে চাই।
নারায়ণের গদ্যশৈলী আমার ভীষণ প্রিয়। কী সুন্দর ফুরফুরে লেখা। কোনো চালাকি নেই। বাচালতা নেই। বাক্যগঠনে এবং শব্দচয়নে জটিলতা নেই। উপদেশ দেওয়ার চেষ্টা নেই। "দার্শনিক বার্তা" দেওয়ার চেষ্টা নেই। পরিমিত ছিমছাম কয়েকটি রেখার টানে ফুটিয়ে তুলেছেন একটি অল্পবয়েসি ছেলের জীবনে প্রথমবার প্রেমে পড়ার ইতিবৃত্ত। প্রথমবার কষ্ট পাওয়ার ইতিবৃত্ত। কষ্টের মাঝেও কয়েক টুকরো মুচকি হাসি গুঁজে রাখতে ভুলে যাননি নারায়ণ। জীবন তো এরকমই...
May 23, 2016
Around the same time that William Faulkner was inventing his mythical Yoknapatawpha County, many thousands of miles away, Indian author R.K. Narayan was doing the same thing in his novels set in a small city named Malgudi in the southern State of Tamil Nadu.
Today, I read The Bachelor of Arts (1937), set in an India that was still under British control. We see his hero Chandran struggle to get his college degree, then fail spectacularly in trying to marry a local beauty named Malathi. He goes off the rails after this failure and spends many months as a holy man wandering around South India. Finally, he returns to Malgudi, finds a good job, and finds an even more beautiful bride in Susila.
I have read about eight of Narayan's Malgudi novels and find him continuing to grow on me. This is the second volume in a trilogy that began with Swami and Friends and ended with The English Teacher, which I have yet to read. Although it is called a trilogy, the characters in each novel are different from one another.
It was none other than Graham Greene who introduced Narayan to the world by finding a publisher for his first four novels. Narayan wrote in English His books are so good that he deserves to be considered one of the greatest 20th century novelists in English.
Today, I read The Bachelor of Arts (1937), set in an India that was still under British control. We see his hero Chandran struggle to get his college degree, then fail spectacularly in trying to marry a local beauty named Malathi. He goes off the rails after this failure and spends many months as a holy man wandering around South India. Finally, he returns to Malgudi, finds a good job, and finds an even more beautiful bride in Susila.
I have read about eight of Narayan's Malgudi novels and find him continuing to grow on me. This is the second volume in a trilogy that began with Swami and Friends and ended with The English Teacher, which I have yet to read. Although it is called a trilogy, the characters in each novel are different from one another.
It was none other than Graham Greene who introduced Narayan to the world by finding a publisher for his first four novels. Narayan wrote in English His books are so good that he deserves to be considered one of the greatest 20th century novelists in English.
March 14, 2010
The second of the four 'Malgugi' novels in the Everyman's Library Edition anthology.
As I began 'The Bachelor of Arts,' I thought it less affecting than 'Swami and Friends,' but then R.K. Narayan's seemingly guileless and unassuming prose worked its magic. The myopic, self-centered world view of its protagonist, Chandran, a spoiled and self-indulgent upper middle-class college graduate unsure of his place in the world, could have quickly made his follies and foibles tiresome.
Narayan, however, brought a wistful smile to this reader's face as he recognized the universality of those youthful stumblings and the crazy luck that so often ameliorates the reckless errors of early adulthood. It's a universality found in a time and place so different from ours: India in the 30s, where an arranged marriage could falter on the outcome of a horoscope.
Narayan's gentle, tender touch makes the quotidian meanderings of his flawed characters simultaneously comic and tragic, and those characters sympathetic.
Highly recommended.
As I began 'The Bachelor of Arts,' I thought it less affecting than 'Swami and Friends,' but then R.K. Narayan's seemingly guileless and unassuming prose worked its magic. The myopic, self-centered world view of its protagonist, Chandran, a spoiled and self-indulgent upper middle-class college graduate unsure of his place in the world, could have quickly made his follies and foibles tiresome.
Narayan, however, brought a wistful smile to this reader's face as he recognized the universality of those youthful stumblings and the crazy luck that so often ameliorates the reckless errors of early adulthood. It's a universality found in a time and place so different from ours: India in the 30s, where an arranged marriage could falter on the outcome of a horoscope.
Narayan's gentle, tender touch makes the quotidian meanderings of his flawed characters simultaneously comic and tragic, and those characters sympathetic.
Highly recommended.
July 14, 2025
A re-read of RK Narayan’s The Bachelor of Arts proved as fulfilling as I expected it to be, a story of change and growth in three parts for Chandran, history and literature student at Albert College in the mid-1930s.
Part one is Chandran’s world of ideas, enthusiasm and unlimited possibility, of being over committed, debating all and sundry, bridling against the Britishness of the curriculum and the professors who teach it, socialising with his friends while completing his degree. He falls in love with love and in particular with the chimerical Malathi, a young girl by the Sarayu River wearing a green sari, who is as much a creature of Chandran’s imaginations as she is real; ‘It was on one of his river ramblings that he met Malathi and thought that he could not have room for anything else in his mind. No one can explain the attraction between two human beings. It happens.’ (p196) One way or another she proves to be unattainable.
Disillusioned, disheartened and increasingly disconnected from friends and family, part two begins, Chandran’s precipitate decision to abandon home and go on a undetermined journey, more of a wandering, abandoning possessions and a roof and adopting the style of a sanyasi, or wandering sage, finding he is sustained by the generosity of the villagers as he traverses the countryside. His short responses to the people he meets lead him to be seen as a wise man. Increasingly he finds people seek out his wisdom, about which he feels ambivalent, if not completely uncomfortable. He spends many months wandering where his feet take him, seeing what the world it is actually like, until he has wandered enough and decides it is time to go home.
Thus begins part three, the quintessential Narayan touch of bringing a character back to reality, in this case to the bond of family. In particular he begins to appreciate the concern of his father who constantly tried to find his son during Chandran’s time away, and his mother who only wants him to find happiness in some way.
With some connections Chandran finds a job as a circulation agent for a newspaper which has a territory he must cover and regular targets he needs to meet. As an Arts graduate myself, where Chandran ends up rings true, the enjoyment of his education bearing little relationship to future employment, or indeed employment at all. The job is not romantic or especially creative, but he begins to have success with it because he accepts the need for hard work and for compromise. So Chandran starts to find his place in the world, brought to greater completeness with the help of his parents with an arranged meeting with a prospective bride, this time an auspicious one. He weds Sushila, who fortunately he falls for on sight, and happily she feels similarly.
There’s warmth to Narayan which is enormously appealing, but there is also authenticity and truth. The lighter side is appropriate too as it is in all our lives. My favourite moment, early on in his story, is when Chandran creates a detailed study plan; ‘He then drew up a very complicated time-table, which would enable one to pay equal attention to all subjects’ (p163). Later; ‘Father came in and gazed at the sheet of paper on Chandran’s table. He could not make anything of it. What he saw before him was a very intricate document, as complicated as a railway timetable.’ (p164) Chandran’s ambitious plan requires great discipline, which he does not have in abundance at that point, so he has to regularly revise and update the schedule as the final examinations loom ever closer.
The Narayan novels I like the most are his loosely autobiographical trilogy Swami and Friends, this one and The English Teacher, together with The Dark Room, which is inevitably less humorous but a powerful story. These are the first four he wrote, and while the next ten are also rather splendid, these four have my whole heart. Page numbers are from the Everyman edition containing these four novels Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher: Introduction by Alexander McCall Smith.
Part one is Chandran’s world of ideas, enthusiasm and unlimited possibility, of being over committed, debating all and sundry, bridling against the Britishness of the curriculum and the professors who teach it, socialising with his friends while completing his degree. He falls in love with love and in particular with the chimerical Malathi, a young girl by the Sarayu River wearing a green sari, who is as much a creature of Chandran’s imaginations as she is real; ‘It was on one of his river ramblings that he met Malathi and thought that he could not have room for anything else in his mind. No one can explain the attraction between two human beings. It happens.’ (p196) One way or another she proves to be unattainable.
Disillusioned, disheartened and increasingly disconnected from friends and family, part two begins, Chandran’s precipitate decision to abandon home and go on a undetermined journey, more of a wandering, abandoning possessions and a roof and adopting the style of a sanyasi, or wandering sage, finding he is sustained by the generosity of the villagers as he traverses the countryside. His short responses to the people he meets lead him to be seen as a wise man. Increasingly he finds people seek out his wisdom, about which he feels ambivalent, if not completely uncomfortable. He spends many months wandering where his feet take him, seeing what the world it is actually like, until he has wandered enough and decides it is time to go home.
Thus begins part three, the quintessential Narayan touch of bringing a character back to reality, in this case to the bond of family. In particular he begins to appreciate the concern of his father who constantly tried to find his son during Chandran’s time away, and his mother who only wants him to find happiness in some way.
With some connections Chandran finds a job as a circulation agent for a newspaper which has a territory he must cover and regular targets he needs to meet. As an Arts graduate myself, where Chandran ends up rings true, the enjoyment of his education bearing little relationship to future employment, or indeed employment at all. The job is not romantic or especially creative, but he begins to have success with it because he accepts the need for hard work and for compromise. So Chandran starts to find his place in the world, brought to greater completeness with the help of his parents with an arranged meeting with a prospective bride, this time an auspicious one. He weds Sushila, who fortunately he falls for on sight, and happily she feels similarly.
There’s warmth to Narayan which is enormously appealing, but there is also authenticity and truth. The lighter side is appropriate too as it is in all our lives. My favourite moment, early on in his story, is when Chandran creates a detailed study plan; ‘He then drew up a very complicated time-table, which would enable one to pay equal attention to all subjects’ (p163). Later; ‘Father came in and gazed at the sheet of paper on Chandran’s table. He could not make anything of it. What he saw before him was a very intricate document, as complicated as a railway timetable.’ (p164) Chandran’s ambitious plan requires great discipline, which he does not have in abundance at that point, so he has to regularly revise and update the schedule as the final examinations loom ever closer.
The Narayan novels I like the most are his loosely autobiographical trilogy Swami and Friends, this one and The English Teacher, together with The Dark Room, which is inevitably less humorous but a powerful story. These are the first four he wrote, and while the next ten are also rather splendid, these four have my whole heart. Page numbers are from the Everyman edition containing these four novels Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher: Introduction by Alexander McCall Smith.
December 28, 2016
"You lived in the college, thinking that you were the first and the last of your kind the college would ever see, and you ended as a group photo..."
While I was reading this masterpiece from Narayan, there was only one question that haunted my mind: "What is in his writing that gives me so much pleasure?"
I first thought that it was its simplicity. But, is it the "simplicity"? No it can't be, and perhaps it shouldn't be. For simplicity reeks of a prose that is written in a very simple manner, a prose which did not require any hard work and was done very "simply".
I've come to believe it is, instead, the truthfulness of the story, of each character that pierced my heart. The obsession of Chandran's mother with dowry, the interest of Chandran's brother in cricket, the political correctness and diplomacy of Chandran's father, the ideological air of Chandran's friend, the poet - how utterly, truly true they were! As if they couldn't be more real. And Chandran? Chandran himself was a boy who didn't seem too different from a boy I used to be in college. Perhaps, that's why I liked the book so much. The fact that I could relate to it.
And it is very likely that not many people will relate to a Bachelor of Arts, not many people would secretly fantasize living the romantic as well as tragic life Chandran lived in the story, and this is why they would just disregard this book as any other Indian coming-of-age story. But for select few, including me, this book is a rare jewel and in the years to come, we will hold it close to our hearts.
Final Verdict : If you enjoy stories that generally lack drama and thrill but are laden with subtleties so subtle that it takes you a while to grasp all the finer details and you enjoy yourself savoring the taste of the story long after you've finished it, then this is the book for you.
While I was reading this masterpiece from Narayan, there was only one question that haunted my mind: "What is in his writing that gives me so much pleasure?"
I first thought that it was its simplicity. But, is it the "simplicity"? No it can't be, and perhaps it shouldn't be. For simplicity reeks of a prose that is written in a very simple manner, a prose which did not require any hard work and was done very "simply".
I've come to believe it is, instead, the truthfulness of the story, of each character that pierced my heart. The obsession of Chandran's mother with dowry, the interest of Chandran's brother in cricket, the political correctness and diplomacy of Chandran's father, the ideological air of Chandran's friend, the poet - how utterly, truly true they were! As if they couldn't be more real. And Chandran? Chandran himself was a boy who didn't seem too different from a boy I used to be in college. Perhaps, that's why I liked the book so much. The fact that I could relate to it.
And it is very likely that not many people will relate to a Bachelor of Arts, not many people would secretly fantasize living the romantic as well as tragic life Chandran lived in the story, and this is why they would just disregard this book as any other Indian coming-of-age story. But for select few, including me, this book is a rare jewel and in the years to come, we will hold it close to our hearts.
Final Verdict : If you enjoy stories that generally lack drama and thrill but are laden with subtleties so subtle that it takes you a while to grasp all the finer details and you enjoy yourself savoring the taste of the story long after you've finished it, then this is the book for you.
August 21, 2021
This books tells the story of a guy who goes to college. He tries hard making hectic study routines trying to please his father, trying his best on a day-to-day basis. However, like all of us, something or the other comes up disrupting his heavy study schedule more often than once. He is the kind of person who gets so involved in art and other academic activities that he barely gets time for anything else. But then comes the dilemma of being young and in love.
Chandran falls hopelessly in love with a girl who he had managed to catch a glimpse one evening.
He got so caught up in the process that even his parents had to yield to his one & only dream of his life i.e to marry her (who he knows barely).
But somehow even after trying his best, the girl got married to someone else.
And he was left devastated.
But this somehow proved to be the only answer which would make him the person he was supposed to be.
He left home, almost became a sanyasi, living on the mercy of those who could spare a little bit for him.
After spending some years living without the desire to desire anything, he returns home much to the relief of his parents.
Such was the change that came over him that whatever he did afterwards was with renewed zeal and progress.
This was such a realistic read which the youth can relate even today.
We study, choose a course to study. After that, what comes next is always a dilemma to us!
The story portrays well the feelings of a youth, how a youth thinks like, why he does what he does;the gap between parents and a youth, the delirious feeling of first love, how it hurts deep when the heart gets broken for the first time; our unchanging education system for the past many decades, the issues that the youth faces regarding being pressured into taking decisions made for him or her by someone else,even marriage getting fixed by the parents/relatives.
Still relatable today.
👎 Wish the story was more elaborate towards the end.
Chandran falls hopelessly in love with a girl who he had managed to catch a glimpse one evening.
He got so caught up in the process that even his parents had to yield to his one & only dream of his life i.e to marry her (who he knows barely).
But somehow even after trying his best, the girl got married to someone else.
And he was left devastated.
But this somehow proved to be the only answer which would make him the person he was supposed to be.
He left home, almost became a sanyasi, living on the mercy of those who could spare a little bit for him.
After spending some years living without the desire to desire anything, he returns home much to the relief of his parents.
Such was the change that came over him that whatever he did afterwards was with renewed zeal and progress.
This was such a realistic read which the youth can relate even today.
We study, choose a course to study. After that, what comes next is always a dilemma to us!
The story portrays well the feelings of a youth, how a youth thinks like, why he does what he does;the gap between parents and a youth, the delirious feeling of first love, how it hurts deep when the heart gets broken for the first time; our unchanging education system for the past many decades, the issues that the youth faces regarding being pressured into taking decisions made for him or her by someone else,even marriage getting fixed by the parents/relatives.
Still relatable today.
👎 Wish the story was more elaborate towards the end.
August 5, 2019
The second book by R.K. Narayan is also based in the fictional town of Malgudi. The book basically deals with the hopes and ambitions of a young graduate who falls in and out of love. The book is a good peep into the way colleges functioned in India in early 30s.
November 4, 2012
Alright.. here is the deal..
This is one book which brings out how one ordinary Indian living in rural India spends his life. The emotions and reactions are true to their core.
I for one could not give it more than 3-stars for:
1. The story writes about small day-to-day activities and thoughts behind them, which I myself have been through. I could never write it down, neither do I think I possibly can. At times I wish them away. Reading the book evoked those thoughts again.
2. At places I was tempted to drop reading as the story to me being an Indian was predictable. The writing was predictable as well after the first half of the book.
3. I loathe to imagine that if such a story is published by some author in the current date, it will not be taken well.(my assumption)
Still 3 stars atleast since:
1. The story was written in 1937. It beautifully brings out the India then and I love the way it does the task!
2. The characters are framed in a typical Indian mindset and they stick to their roles-something I was watching out for.
3. The intensity with which love hits the prodigy and the manner in which he deals with it is too close to me to be rejected as rubbish.
(Confession: I equally hated and loved RKN for that)
After re-reading my review, I guess I will give it a 4 :P
This is one book which brings out how one ordinary Indian living in rural India spends his life. The emotions and reactions are true to their core.
I for one could not give it more than 3-stars for:
1. The story writes about small day-to-day activities and thoughts behind them, which I myself have been through. I could never write it down, neither do I think I possibly can. At times I wish them away. Reading the book evoked those thoughts again.
2. At places I was tempted to drop reading as the story to me being an Indian was predictable. The writing was predictable as well after the first half of the book.
3. I loathe to imagine that if such a story is published by some author in the current date, it will not be taken well.(my assumption)
Still 3 stars atleast since:
1. The story was written in 1937. It beautifully brings out the India then and I love the way it does the task!
2. The characters are framed in a typical Indian mindset and they stick to their roles-something I was watching out for.
3. The intensity with which love hits the prodigy and the manner in which he deals with it is too close to me to be rejected as rubbish.
(Confession: I equally hated and loved RKN for that)
After re-reading my review, I guess I will give it a 4 :P
July 20, 2021
Yet again I am smitten by R K Narayan’s writing! I really enjoy his satirical narration which says a lot of things indirectly. Here the journey of protagonist Chandran from his college life till the very end of this book although seems simple, but in fact has a very deep message hidden in it. Like the positive change in Chandran’s character– though in a way his mistakes, his impulsiveness in taking any decision, his misconception towards love and friendship injures him a lot, in turn, it also teaches him a lesson and helps him grow mentally strong and makes him realize the importance of his life and family. My only complaint is the ending which is a bit abrupt like his other works!
Here is a beautiful quote from this book about “friendship” which is so true...
“Friendship was another illusion like love, though it did not reach the same mad heights. People pretended that they were friends when the fact was they were brought together by the force of circumstances. The classroom or the club or the official created friendships. When the circumstances changed the relation, too, snapped.”
https://varshasbookshelf.blogspot.com/
Here is a beautiful quote from this book about “friendship” which is so true...
“Friendship was another illusion like love, though it did not reach the same mad heights. People pretended that they were friends when the fact was they were brought together by the force of circumstances. The classroom or the club or the official created friendships. When the circumstances changed the relation, too, snapped.”
https://varshasbookshelf.blogspot.com/
February 10, 2023
'The Bachelor of Arts' is the second novel penned by R.K. Narayan also known as the Grand Old Man of Malgudi. Narayan's book is timeless & rip roaring funny as always. It is always a pleasure to read & re-read a Malgudi novel or short story collection. The novel chronicles the story of Chandran a 21 year old last year BA student or what we call in India as a TYBA student. In the course of the last year of college, Chandran comes face to face with the fact that he cannot get a graduation degree if he does not study & cram for it. Thus, the first part of the novel chronicles the hilarious but true to life manner in which he tries to balance his college lectures, leisure & study schedule. But what awaits Chandran after graduation? How does his adventures at college influence what happens to him outside it. That one can find out by reading this rip roaring hilarious novel which can put a smile on anyone's face. Anyone who has had to work very hard for their graduation or post-graduation board exams will really enjoy this little novel. The characters are evergreen & the tale of Chandran's little exaggerated love story can make one laugh out loud practically throughout the reading of this modern classic novel. Although Grahame Greene mentions in the introduction that 'The Bachelor of Arts' is not one of Narayan's most humorous works, I would tend to disagree on this point. I found this book to be highly amusing & entertaining, just like the Malgudi novels penned after the death of Narayan's wife. Grahame Greene was Narayan's mentor & it felt wonderful to read this literary stalwart's note on 'The Bachelor of Arts'. I especially loved the way Greene confessed what he was working on when Narayan was writing this novel way back in the 1930's. Anyone feeling nostalgic about their college days will certainly find this book a memorable read. I was constantly reminded about my under-graduate college days while reading the text, especially the way poor Chandran is forced into becoming the secretary of the History Association & had to conduct all it's sessions without time to prepare for the examinations. The scene which I really loved among others was when Chandran lands in a bar in Madras where he refuses to drink whiskey & his companion makes a solemn declaration in the bargain on the value of mothers in Indian society. How are they connected? Read the novel to find out. Enter the world of Chandran, his stuck up orthodox family, his one-sided love interest Malathi, his crazy college friend circle, Malathi's astrology believing father & so much more. Get your copy of 'The Bachelor of Arts' today!
November 12, 2017
It is not that Chandran, the young central character of this small Narayan novel, is lackadaisical or lazy, but crucial life decisions just happen more than result from any planning. In fact, once Chandran sees the course before him, he can be filled with passionate, even irrational, intent. He falls passionately in love with a young woman to whom he has never spoken, nor hardly ever will; he becomes a wandering ascetic for a period of time simply because that seems the proper reaction to his disappointment in love; he stumbles upon a job working for a newspaper. In each of these roles, he plays his part with intensity . . . or, well, as much intensity as this somewhat thin character can muster! It would be easy to brush him aside as a loser, but so many of us might recognize something of ourselves in Chandran. That is, this Indian novel transcends the Indian world where ideas like karma shape so much, and forces us to wonder how much of our own lives, even the major decisions that have brought us to where we are now, result more from happenstance than from careful decision-making.
November 28, 2015
This is one of the earlier RKNs. And in some ways takes off from where Swami and Friends leaves us. There is Chandran, about to finish his BA and stepping into the world of adulthood. There are the usual things that signify this rite of passage. Those friendships in college, that first love and failure, the search for a job or a thing to pursue. And then the inevitable 'settling down' into adulthood, when you know your friends are gone and your college days are reduced to "Group photos" hung on your college walls.
For a change, RKN's protagonist is not a no-good loser. You see that right at the start where he's made to debate against Historians even though he himself is a student of History, and does a really good job of it. He's a well above average student coming from a pretty wealthy family with doting parents. You know if he puts his mind to a task he's capable of doing a good job of it. Even to the point of becoming an ochre wearing ascetic where you know he's not going to go around cheating people like in The Guide(or at least starting to). Eventually that's what turns him back, when he realises he cannot go the whole way into being an ascetic.
The best thing about RKN is always the details. The way his Father prowls around the house at 9 PM when he's expected to be home when he's a student, and the way he broaches the topic of marriage when he's working are just brilliant in their simplicity and closeness to real life. The whole change in how parents see us when we grow up, trying to walk the tight rope between dealing with one's child and an adult. Well done!
This is one of RKN's earliest works, his second and you feel the frivolity that is missing in his later works. It draws from incidents in his life like the father of a girl he falls head-over-heels to, rejecting his proposal as the horoscopes do not match. In real life he convinced his future father-in-law, but here Chandran ends up despairing and rebellious. Many incidents are also from his own days in college. Subsequent works tend to go darker right after his wife died, before picking up on the lightness, eventually settling on a good balance between the two.
It's very interesting to read RKN's works as references or checkpoints to his own life, and you can mark the trajectory starting from the almost autobiographical works in the beginning to being the writer he became, starting from works like The Financial Expert and Waiting for the Mahatma.
Chandran rose from the gallery and stood looking at some group photos hanging on the wall. All your interests, joys, sorrows, hopes, contacts, and experience boiled down to group photos, Chandran thought. You lived in the college, thinking that you were the first and last of your kind the college would ever see, and you ended up as a group photo; the laughing, giggling fellows one saw about the Union now little knew that they would shortly be frozen into group photos... He stopped before the group representing the 1931 set. He stood on tiptoe to see the faces. Many faces were familiar, but he could not recollect all their names. Where were all these now? He met so few of his classmates, though they had been two hundred strong for four years. Where were they? Scattered like spray. They were probably merchants, advocates, murderers, police inspectors, clerks, officers, and what not. Some must have gone to England, some married and had children, some turned agriculturists, dead and starving and unemployed, all at grips with life, like a buffalo caught in the coils of a python...
For a change, RKN's protagonist is not a no-good loser. You see that right at the start where he's made to debate against Historians even though he himself is a student of History, and does a really good job of it. He's a well above average student coming from a pretty wealthy family with doting parents. You know if he puts his mind to a task he's capable of doing a good job of it. Even to the point of becoming an ochre wearing ascetic where you know he's not going to go around cheating people like in The Guide(or at least starting to). Eventually that's what turns him back, when he realises he cannot go the whole way into being an ascetic.
The best thing about RKN is always the details. The way his Father prowls around the house at 9 PM when he's expected to be home when he's a student, and the way he broaches the topic of marriage when he's working are just brilliant in their simplicity and closeness to real life. The whole change in how parents see us when we grow up, trying to walk the tight rope between dealing with one's child and an adult. Well done!
This is one of RKN's earliest works, his second and you feel the frivolity that is missing in his later works. It draws from incidents in his life like the father of a girl he falls head-over-heels to, rejecting his proposal as the horoscopes do not match. In real life he convinced his future father-in-law, but here Chandran ends up despairing and rebellious. Many incidents are also from his own days in college. Subsequent works tend to go darker right after his wife died, before picking up on the lightness, eventually settling on a good balance between the two.
It's very interesting to read RKN's works as references or checkpoints to his own life, and you can mark the trajectory starting from the almost autobiographical works in the beginning to being the writer he became, starting from works like The Financial Expert and Waiting for the Mahatma.
Chandran rose from the gallery and stood looking at some group photos hanging on the wall. All your interests, joys, sorrows, hopes, contacts, and experience boiled down to group photos, Chandran thought. You lived in the college, thinking that you were the first and last of your kind the college would ever see, and you ended up as a group photo; the laughing, giggling fellows one saw about the Union now little knew that they would shortly be frozen into group photos... He stopped before the group representing the 1931 set. He stood on tiptoe to see the faces. Many faces were familiar, but he could not recollect all their names. Where were all these now? He met so few of his classmates, though they had been two hundred strong for four years. Where were they? Scattered like spray. They were probably merchants, advocates, murderers, police inspectors, clerks, officers, and what not. Some must have gone to England, some married and had children, some turned agriculturists, dead and starving and unemployed, all at grips with life, like a buffalo caught in the coils of a python...
September 18, 2018
From the introduction by Graham Greene: "Narayan wakes in me a spring of gratitude, for he has offered me a second home. Without him I could never have known what it is like to be Indian."
Being Indian and reading any RK book hits home every time. Written exactly 80 years ago, about a fictional place close to home and reading at a time when I am at the age of the protagonist himself ; it is heartwarming to realize that the hopes and fears of a recently graduated older child in a conservative, middle class, south Indian family, have more or less maintained over the past century:
Be it trying to convince your parents that you’re not their little kid anymore or wanting to study abroad only if to come back and make home a better place or warding off questions from nosy aunties about love and life or gathering all the courage in your bones to tell somebody you fell in love with them when they weren’t looking.
While I am glad social injustices like not educating the girl child and child marriage (very much prevalent in 1930s India and touched upon in the book) are now not commonplace, evils like dowry and patriarchy are still the reality in my world, not to mention conundrums like religious superstitions and aristocratic societies and the immense pressure on young adults because of them.
The Bachelor of Arts takes us along the ups and downs of Chandran’s life as he meanders through challenges that only your early twenties is capable of testing you with. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that this in fact is a book about the coming of age of Chandran H Venkatachala Iyer. Between love and friendship and family and society and self-actualization, this is a story of how Chandran overcomes himself in his pursuit of happiness.
Being Indian and reading any RK book hits home every time. Written exactly 80 years ago, about a fictional place close to home and reading at a time when I am at the age of the protagonist himself ; it is heartwarming to realize that the hopes and fears of a recently graduated older child in a conservative, middle class, south Indian family, have more or less maintained over the past century:
Be it trying to convince your parents that you’re not their little kid anymore or wanting to study abroad only if to come back and make home a better place or warding off questions from nosy aunties about love and life or gathering all the courage in your bones to tell somebody you fell in love with them when they weren’t looking.
While I am glad social injustices like not educating the girl child and child marriage (very much prevalent in 1930s India and touched upon in the book) are now not commonplace, evils like dowry and patriarchy are still the reality in my world, not to mention conundrums like religious superstitions and aristocratic societies and the immense pressure on young adults because of them.
The Bachelor of Arts takes us along the ups and downs of Chandran’s life as he meanders through challenges that only your early twenties is capable of testing you with. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that this in fact is a book about the coming of age of Chandran H Venkatachala Iyer. Between love and friendship and family and society and self-actualization, this is a story of how Chandran overcomes himself in his pursuit of happiness.
June 20, 2023
R K Narayan’s stories are the best. They are about the simple lives of simple and ordinary people. They have a simplicity with a lot of emotions. They are about everyday incidents we encounter as kids, adults and in-between life and death.
In the first few pages only, we start to identify ourselves with Chandran, our protagonist in The Bachelor of Arts. Such is the atmosphere RK Narayan creates and makes us see ourselves in his characters. Chandran, a dreamy student unsure of how he wants to spend his future like many of us. He was in the last year of college and wasted half of the year. As final exams were approaching, he started to make plans about how many hours to study daily, how many to prepare for each subject, in the worst case scenario, which topics to study first, so that at least he could clear all the exams with minimum grades. Most of us go through such incidents in our lives. This is one of many incidents that happen in the story, like indecisiveness about future, losing contact with friends after college and finding new friends, first love and the heart-ache it brought, the value of family and relationships. How Chandran overcame all these and became a better person in the end is what The Bachelor of Arts is about.
Like always, it is a joy to read R K Narayan’s writings.
In the first few pages only, we start to identify ourselves with Chandran, our protagonist in The Bachelor of Arts. Such is the atmosphere RK Narayan creates and makes us see ourselves in his characters. Chandran, a dreamy student unsure of how he wants to spend his future like many of us. He was in the last year of college and wasted half of the year. As final exams were approaching, he started to make plans about how many hours to study daily, how many to prepare for each subject, in the worst case scenario, which topics to study first, so that at least he could clear all the exams with minimum grades. Most of us go through such incidents in our lives. This is one of many incidents that happen in the story, like indecisiveness about future, losing contact with friends after college and finding new friends, first love and the heart-ache it brought, the value of family and relationships. How Chandran overcame all these and became a better person in the end is what The Bachelor of Arts is about.
Like always, it is a joy to read R K Narayan’s writings.
August 21, 2018
There is a quaint charm about the books of R.K. Narayan, like the languid grace of late summer afternoons. There is no urge to spell out the minutiae of the plot, no kid-gloved treatment of readers by letting them into every detail, including the color of the characters’ iris. There are no otherworldly characters with vaunted virtues or revolting vileness. Narayan’s characters are all simple human beings, persons we come across every day at work, on the road, in public transports, or at the cafeteria. The characters are so natural to the point of making you feel like one of them. Again, there is no fairy-tale like fantasy in the plots. The storyline is - to borrow the comparison by some writer that I vaguely remember - like lifting the curtain from a stage where the events are already going on, observing it without any judgement and then gently letting the curtain fall.
Unlike most of the contemporary Indian authors, many of whose works I nearly ended up flinging through the window, the Indian masters of yore had a sense of simplicity and sincerity in their writings. If I say that RKN is chief among them, not many would contest my point.
This book by Narayan is an absolute delight. Dwelling into the transformation of a young, easy-going college student into a man of serious disposition, the joys, aspirations, dreams, the inevitable heartbreak and revival of hope that all stud this period of transformation are well narrated in a manner only RKN can.
Chandran is the son of doting parents and elder brother to an adoring young boy. In his final year in college, Chandran has little to care about in life, except his college History Association meetings and, later, his final year exams. A life of comfort, simple joys and routine dreams promises to get better when he meets, no, sees a young girl during one of his evening strolls by the river. Smitten by the girl, even whose name he is not aware of, Chandran relishes all the dreams of youth, only to be rudely awakened by the challenges and customs that marked the Indian societies in that period. Did Chandran marry the girl of his dreams? Did he get to make a mark for himself and settle in life? What did it take to turn that carefree young man into a mature adult? Read the book for answers.
There are more than a dozen books of R.K. Narayan in my shelf now. Each book evokes in me a different sensation. Some books make me smile, some stir in me a sense of mischief, some give me peace, some cause sadness, some fill me with hope and some stoke all these emotions at once. ‘The Bachelor of Arts’ is one such book laced with the trademark subtle humor of R.K. Narayan, mixed with a tinge of sadness that lurks in the background like the ever-present nose in front of our eyes.
If you like books that deal with the intricacies of human nature, with all the pleasures and frailties that make us stand high above all other creatures on this planet, then ‘The Bachelor of Arts’ is a book that you MUST experience!
Unlike most of the contemporary Indian authors, many of whose works I nearly ended up flinging through the window, the Indian masters of yore had a sense of simplicity and sincerity in their writings. If I say that RKN is chief among them, not many would contest my point.
This book by Narayan is an absolute delight. Dwelling into the transformation of a young, easy-going college student into a man of serious disposition, the joys, aspirations, dreams, the inevitable heartbreak and revival of hope that all stud this period of transformation are well narrated in a manner only RKN can.
Chandran is the son of doting parents and elder brother to an adoring young boy. In his final year in college, Chandran has little to care about in life, except his college History Association meetings and, later, his final year exams. A life of comfort, simple joys and routine dreams promises to get better when he meets, no, sees a young girl during one of his evening strolls by the river. Smitten by the girl, even whose name he is not aware of, Chandran relishes all the dreams of youth, only to be rudely awakened by the challenges and customs that marked the Indian societies in that period. Did Chandran marry the girl of his dreams? Did he get to make a mark for himself and settle in life? What did it take to turn that carefree young man into a mature adult? Read the book for answers.
There are more than a dozen books of R.K. Narayan in my shelf now. Each book evokes in me a different sensation. Some books make me smile, some stir in me a sense of mischief, some give me peace, some cause sadness, some fill me with hope and some stoke all these emotions at once. ‘The Bachelor of Arts’ is one such book laced with the trademark subtle humor of R.K. Narayan, mixed with a tinge of sadness that lurks in the background like the ever-present nose in front of our eyes.
If you like books that deal with the intricacies of human nature, with all the pleasures and frailties that make us stand high above all other creatures on this planet, then ‘The Bachelor of Arts’ is a book that you MUST experience!
June 26, 2019
R.K. Narayan gives me a 'warmer' feeling than any other novelist. This doesn't mean that his books make life seem easy. On the contrary, his work is absolutely committed to dealing with the travails of existence; but there is a deep humanity about his style that strongly appeals to my better nature. I love immersing myself in his world and I feel that no more genuine and sincere guide could ever be found to our common reality than this author.
The Bachelor of Arts tells of Chandran, who graduates from college and falls in love with Malathi, a girl he sees on the sands of the river bank one evening. His yearnings for her lead to the most dramatic adventure of his youth, as he impulsively but bravely decides to reject the world when he is unable to have her as his wife. But that is only one extended incident among many.
This novel is delightful and charming but also has elements of melancholy. It is humorous and yet serious. I fully understand why Graham Greene said that Narayan was his favourite writer in the English language. Greene said that Narayan had metaphorically offered him a second home in India; and that's exactly the way I feel too.
The Bachelor of Arts tells of Chandran, who graduates from college and falls in love with Malathi, a girl he sees on the sands of the river bank one evening. His yearnings for her lead to the most dramatic adventure of his youth, as he impulsively but bravely decides to reject the world when he is unable to have her as his wife. But that is only one extended incident among many.
This novel is delightful and charming but also has elements of melancholy. It is humorous and yet serious. I fully understand why Graham Greene said that Narayan was his favourite writer in the English language. Greene said that Narayan had metaphorically offered him a second home in India; and that's exactly the way I feel too.
April 30, 2022
Ugliness and beauty are all as it strikes one's eye. Everyone has his vision.
As I read RK Narayan s masterpiece the first thought that comes to my mind is how simple it is. You will get smitten by its simplicity. He has not missed the nuances of daily life in a fictional place with his inimitable style of writing.
It brings out the ordinary living in Malgudi. The characters are portrayed with a typical Indian mindset. The central character Chandran s mother's obsession with the dowry system, interest in cricket, and the protagonist who rather lives a very predictable yet simple and tragic life.
Narayan has made sure that the book takes a positive turn in the protagonist's life. Even though his impulsiveness and misconceptions about love and life injure him at the near inception of the book. Fortunately, you will get a view of the transformation of a boy from a young college student to a man facing an inevitable turn of events that can be faced only in our twenties.
This reading of his book only proves that I am going to be with RK Narayan for a long time. I am in love with his eye for detail depth and simplicity in each of his stories.
As I read RK Narayan s masterpiece the first thought that comes to my mind is how simple it is. You will get smitten by its simplicity. He has not missed the nuances of daily life in a fictional place with his inimitable style of writing.
It brings out the ordinary living in Malgudi. The characters are portrayed with a typical Indian mindset. The central character Chandran s mother's obsession with the dowry system, interest in cricket, and the protagonist who rather lives a very predictable yet simple and tragic life.
Narayan has made sure that the book takes a positive turn in the protagonist's life. Even though his impulsiveness and misconceptions about love and life injure him at the near inception of the book. Fortunately, you will get a view of the transformation of a boy from a young college student to a man facing an inevitable turn of events that can be faced only in our twenties.
This reading of his book only proves that I am going to be with RK Narayan for a long time. I am in love with his eye for detail depth and simplicity in each of his stories.
May 19, 2013
It was my first Narayan book so obviously I was quite curious as well as excited to finally read one of the most respected Indian author of all time. And now I know why I heard about him so much for all these years; absolutely brilliant to say the least. He has put a simple small town story in such a beautiful way that you feel like being there and seeing this entire story from your own eyes.
It is absolutely amazing when you get to know that it was published in 1937 and still you can connect at so many levels with the entire story. The story explores the transition of an adolescent mind into adulthood through the main protagonist who is a guy doing his B.A. from where the title of the book comes! The story covers his college days, post graduation confusion on career, his heartbreak and finally his marriage which is so important in our society. And nothing looks out of time even though it was published almost 75 years ago :)
Go for it just to see how simplicity and depth can go together in a story. I am definitely going to be with Mr Narayan for a long time now!
It is absolutely amazing when you get to know that it was published in 1937 and still you can connect at so many levels with the entire story. The story explores the transition of an adolescent mind into adulthood through the main protagonist who is a guy doing his B.A. from where the title of the book comes! The story covers his college days, post graduation confusion on career, his heartbreak and finally his marriage which is so important in our society. And nothing looks out of time even though it was published almost 75 years ago :)
Go for it just to see how simplicity and depth can go together in a story. I am definitely going to be with Mr Narayan for a long time now!
May 11, 2022
Buddy read The Bachelor Of Arts by R. K. Narayan with Simran (@craartology ) at the beginning of this year and had a good time discussing it.
Chandran, our protagonist is in his last year of college. He's witnesses a girl at the river bank and ends up falling for her. He goes to various extremes for her but luck isn't on his side. Circumstances make him take Sanyas and he almost becomes a Sanyasi. He decides to then return home after some time.
This book is actually semi-autobiographical in nature. Lots of Indian elements make this book an enjoyable read but I wasn't left satisfied with it. It felt like something was amiss, something missing, the story felt incomplete somehow. Narayan has explored the theme of young love quite interestingly but I've read better titles by him. Give it a read, it may be a hit or miss for you.
Chandran, our protagonist is in his last year of college. He's witnesses a girl at the river bank and ends up falling for her. He goes to various extremes for her but luck isn't on his side. Circumstances make him take Sanyas and he almost becomes a Sanyasi. He decides to then return home after some time.
This book is actually semi-autobiographical in nature. Lots of Indian elements make this book an enjoyable read but I wasn't left satisfied with it. It felt like something was amiss, something missing, the story felt incomplete somehow. Narayan has explored the theme of young love quite interestingly but I've read better titles by him. Give it a read, it may be a hit or miss for you.
June 14, 2018
It’s a simple story, written in simple language. Most of it, predictable. For a book written decades ago, this book still reflects the Indian society, and the struggles of an average Indian caught up in the tug of war between traditionalism and modernity. Also, a major chunk of the book depicts the transformation of a young graduate to an adult - what happens when life pricks your bubble and you face the challenges that reality has in store for you. Experiences that have a role to play in the becoming of an adult, is what this book is all about.
August 29, 2014
This is one of the finest books written by RK Narayan.There was drama,Irony,Humour what not everything.
October 27, 2017
I’m too small a person to comment on R K Narayan’s writing but I can safely claim that he has an inimitable style which makes you appreciate the nuances of day-to-day life and transports you into the setting of his semi-fictional world. Set in the background of Malgudi, The Bachelor of Arts is part two of the trilogy starting with Swami and Friends and traces the life of Chandran, and his experiences in colonial era India as a college student, who later falls in love and gets heartbroken, leading to a stint as a Sanyasi in Madras before returning to Malgudi, after realizing the sacrifices his family has made for him and how their love needs to be reciprocated.
If one were familiar with how “Tambrahm” uncles speak, one would notice that R K Narayan’s sentence construction is largely an English version of the same. Personally, that is what made it more enjoyable to me. There’s ample doses of the dry and sarcastic humor, and the usual fretting over the “orthodox and right way” of doing things. Chandran might seem a spoilt kid in some ways, but the decency of his approach and his thought process, his internalizations and deductions on the nature of life and his personal opinions on people and places around him are so relatable a century later, especially for someone who has been through a similar orthodox upbringing.
It is interesting to visualize the mindset of people who lived in the latter part of the British empire, how status was a deeply personal matter among the upper-class society, how marrying a girl above 15 years of age was seen as something negative, and how job referrals were not so different from how they are today. It was also funny to see how Madras was seen as far more cosmopolitan back in the day, and people “rude” to not even look the eye.
It would be silly to judge the actions of the characters in the book by today’s standards, something which we have been accustomed to of late. It is best enjoyed by allowing yourself to be transported to a bygone era, and let the author spin his charm.
If one were familiar with how “Tambrahm” uncles speak, one would notice that R K Narayan’s sentence construction is largely an English version of the same. Personally, that is what made it more enjoyable to me. There’s ample doses of the dry and sarcastic humor, and the usual fretting over the “orthodox and right way” of doing things. Chandran might seem a spoilt kid in some ways, but the decency of his approach and his thought process, his internalizations and deductions on the nature of life and his personal opinions on people and places around him are so relatable a century later, especially for someone who has been through a similar orthodox upbringing.
It is interesting to visualize the mindset of people who lived in the latter part of the British empire, how status was a deeply personal matter among the upper-class society, how marrying a girl above 15 years of age was seen as something negative, and how job referrals were not so different from how they are today. It was also funny to see how Madras was seen as far more cosmopolitan back in the day, and people “rude” to not even look the eye.
It would be silly to judge the actions of the characters in the book by today’s standards, something which we have been accustomed to of late. It is best enjoyed by allowing yourself to be transported to a bygone era, and let the author spin his charm.
September 14, 2021
The Bachelor of Arts revolves around Chandran, who, despite coming off as a rather methodical and patient person, repeatedly proves this assessment incorrect by having significant changes in his life on a whim, solidified by his inherent stubbornness.
R. K. Narayan's style of writing feels more like narration – like a self-aware monologue straight from the heart of the protagonist. While often it's somewhat bland and annoying, it has its own sort of charm to it. The words are resolute and have a sense of confirmation in them despite the absence of actual substance behind them.
My gripe with the story – and I'm sure it's intentional, is how accomodating each character except the protagonist is, to the protagonist's selfishness. I'd assume part of it is the change in mindset through the decades since the book was first published, but god, Chandran really expects to be pampered, and pampered he is.
I don't mind protagonists having 'bad traits', in fact, it's something I find rather interesting. However, the constant pretense of it just being normal behavior, made the book more about the perspective of an upper caste, male, rich, intellectually endowed individual, rather than a character study of the growing pains of the protagonist.
I do see a lot of myself in the protagonist, and I'm sure most Indian youths do, as it covers the bases well, though I didn't find myself engrossed in any sort of growth over the period of the book. Though Chandran went through several momentous events throughout the course of the book, his character didn't really change particularly, at least in the inner monologue we get to see.
The ending was fine, and while I acknowledge the subtleties that it let on throughout the course of the book and the implications of the ending, it felt sudden (in a not-so-good way), and it lacked any memorability for me.
However, at around 160 pages short, and with an incredibly engrossing wit and charm, the book is a real baptism into the world of Narayan, and while I wouldn't personally consider it passing the test of time, it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.
Story: 2/5
Characters: 1.5/5
Writing: 4/5
Enjoyment: 3.5/5
Total: 2.75/5
R. K. Narayan's style of writing feels more like narration – like a self-aware monologue straight from the heart of the protagonist. While often it's somewhat bland and annoying, it has its own sort of charm to it. The words are resolute and have a sense of confirmation in them despite the absence of actual substance behind them.
My gripe with the story – and I'm sure it's intentional, is how accomodating each character except the protagonist is, to the protagonist's selfishness. I'd assume part of it is the change in mindset through the decades since the book was first published, but god, Chandran really expects to be pampered, and pampered he is.
I don't mind protagonists having 'bad traits', in fact, it's something I find rather interesting. However, the constant pretense of it just being normal behavior, made the book more about the perspective of an upper caste, male, rich, intellectually endowed individual, rather than a character study of the growing pains of the protagonist.
I do see a lot of myself in the protagonist, and I'm sure most Indian youths do, as it covers the bases well, though I didn't find myself engrossed in any sort of growth over the period of the book. Though Chandran went through several momentous events throughout the course of the book, his character didn't really change particularly, at least in the inner monologue we get to see.
The ending was fine, and while I acknowledge the subtleties that it let on throughout the course of the book and the implications of the ending, it felt sudden (in a not-so-good way), and it lacked any memorability for me.
However, at around 160 pages short, and with an incredibly engrossing wit and charm, the book is a real baptism into the world of Narayan, and while I wouldn't personally consider it passing the test of time, it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.
Story: 2/5
Characters: 1.5/5
Writing: 4/5
Enjoyment: 3.5/5
Total: 2.75/5
August 23, 2022
I was introduced to RK Narayan by a Doordarshan program 'Malgudi Days' made from his novels and stories.'THE BACHELOR OF ARTS ' is his first book that I have read. Depicting the atmosphere of the novel 1931, Chandran, living in the city of Malgudi, details the events of his life. This novel is divided into four parts. The first part gives a glimpse of Chandran's college and personal life. The second part talks about the purpose and love of Chandran's life. The third part tells about the ups and downs in his life and the changes that came from it and the last part deals with the stagnation in his.All the parts of the novel are connected and tied to each other in a very precise way. After reading each part, the desire to read the other part awakens. The main character of the novel represents any ordinary person. It can be said that the protagonist of the novel is a glimpse of a common man who has many ups and downs in his life, he gets angry at them, gets upset with them, sometimes feels lost and even tries to win from them. I enjoyed reading this novel as much as I was disappointed by its ending. Its ending was very unexpected for me. Where the hero's race finds no end or the story gets no new twist.
June 21, 2015
I'm dividing this review into Pros, Cons and Verdict.
Pros: An engaging read from start to finish. Narayan has one quality that most writers of his genre lack: thrill. And even though this type of novel is deemed satirical, I found it unusually unputdownable as well. The main character Chandran is simplistically fun and his contact with the other characters is intriguing to read about.
Cons: One flaw is that there are not enough interesting secondary characters. The best support was from the poet Mohan whose thoughts are equally unique as Chandran's. And the other flaw was the ending which was satisfactory yet not excellent.
Verdict: Although, I pointed out two flaws they are only minor. The novel is superbly written and with an original flair that most English-language Indian authors lack
Furthermore, some readers have compared Narayan's literary style to Charles Dickens' but the sarcasm in this book reminded me of Oscar Wilde's wit. Ultimately, The Bachelor of Arts is one of the best satirical novels I've ever read.
Pros: An engaging read from start to finish. Narayan has one quality that most writers of his genre lack: thrill. And even though this type of novel is deemed satirical, I found it unusually unputdownable as well. The main character Chandran is simplistically fun and his contact with the other characters is intriguing to read about.
Cons: One flaw is that there are not enough interesting secondary characters. The best support was from the poet Mohan whose thoughts are equally unique as Chandran's. And the other flaw was the ending which was satisfactory yet not excellent.
Verdict: Although, I pointed out two flaws they are only minor. The novel is superbly written and with an original flair that most English-language Indian authors lack
Furthermore, some readers have compared Narayan's literary style to Charles Dickens' but the sarcasm in this book reminded me of Oscar Wilde's wit. Ultimately, The Bachelor of Arts is one of the best satirical novels I've ever read.
October 2, 2012
Excellent story. RK Narayan in his simple and charming ways, takes us through college life, friendship and love.
Malgudi the town continues to enthrall the reader; while this book provides a different facet portrayed through a very different human experience, one can still imagine Swami and his friends playing about in town while Chandran is participating in debates, falling in love and starting his own business.
Good and fast read; only, this edition has bad print, small fonts and is ridden with spelling errors.
Malgudi the town continues to enthrall the reader; while this book provides a different facet portrayed through a very different human experience, one can still imagine Swami and his friends playing about in town while Chandran is participating in debates, falling in love and starting his own business.
Good and fast read; only, this edition has bad print, small fonts and is ridden with spelling errors.
November 25, 2016
NEVER has something so simple given me so much joy. The book is so charming and captures British Indian life in a very realistic way. The book is so relatable , mundane things which we would never think of come of as something so relatable and reading this book was a lovely experience :)
August 3, 2016
It was my first RK Narayan book...I really enjoyed reading it but was quite disappointed when I reached the end. It ended so abruptly!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 237 reviews