Selected Short Stories [Jul 07, 2006] Anand, Mulk Raj and Cowasjee, Saros

by Mulk Raj Anand

This volume brings together some of the best and most memorable stories from Mulk Raj Anand's published collections, each of them illustrating a different mood and tone. In his half-humorous and half-ironic way, Anand draws our attention to the plight of the marginalized, the poor and the illiterate, and penetrates their innermost feelings and emotions. Straightforward, unpretentious and expertly crafted, these unforgettable vignettes of life in twentieth-century India are sure to haunt the reader long after the book has been put down.

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Mulk Raj Anand was an Indian writer in English, notable for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, together with R.K. Narayan, Ahmed Ali and Raja Rao, was one of the first India-based writers in English to gain an international readership. Anand is admired for his novels and short stories, which have acquired the status of being classic works of modern Indian English literature, noted for their perceptive insight into the lives of the oppressed and their analyses of impoverishment, exploitation and misfortune. He is also notable for being among the first writers to incorporate Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English.

Reviews

[Rishi Prakash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book from a library at Almora and it turned out to be perfect for the setting :)

Had heard a lot about the author so finally got one! This book brings together some of the best and most memorable stories from Anands published collections, each of them illustrating a different moon and tone. In his half- humorous and half-ironic way, he draws our attention to the plight of the marginalized, the poor and the illiterate, and puts their innermost feelings and emotion very well.

These unforgettable stories of life from the twentieth-century India are sure to stay long with us even after the book has been put down.

[Soumyabrata Sarkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Selected Short Stories | Mulk Raj Anand | Selected and Edited by Soras Cowasjee | Penguin Modern Classics
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Never before read any of Anand's work, I took up this one from @Bestsellerbooks sale at Pune previous year. Unlike R.K. Narayan's Malgudi Tales, which I'd read and enjoyed being televised in my school days, both Anand's name and work never came my way, except for the famous ones like "Coolie" or "Untouchable" that was mentioned in one or more articles in annual Malayalam Manorama Yearbooks.
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Anand's immense sympathy for the poor, as evident from this collection along with his slow yet deliberate slapstick dry humour showcasing wide differences between 'arrogant race-colour conscious haves' vs 'havenots given to suspicion and fear' - aptly places him as India's Charles Dickens. The rich blend of Indian folktales mixing with European pyschological realism creates his unique new kind of fables that establishes an evergreen charm, taking the reader in a whirlwind trip of detest, cringe, wrath, hope, fear, relief and myriad other emotions.
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The green of peasant and lower middle class Indian being numbed down with "stifling puritanism of Indian life" and colliding "white man's burden", traverses depths in these tales that sets the reader's mind racing towards the next diverse story in the lot, while he/she knows it would still take some more time to digest what's just been finished.
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Definitely a must read!
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P.S - Thanks to the stimulating summary in 'Introduction', provided by Cowasjee, who selected and edited all these 32 tales. It furnished a nicely required both a brief and recap respectively, before and after finishing the layered storyteller's works, who might as well be a poet for his streak, as Alfred Perles aptly says in the blurb at the back

[Srikumar Krishna Iyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really wonderful collection of some of the (hopefully...!!) short stories written by Mulk Raj Anand.
As mentioned in the intro, seems like his short stories have never been consolidated properly & published, but I guess this edition does justice to that complaint.
32 short stories spanning only 259 pages shows the creativity of this legendary writer.
Hope to explore more on his works.
Highly recommended for anybody looking for some amazing stories, short/ quick reads.

[Adnan Nusrat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of short stories defining 20th century rural India with different tones.