Classic Saratchandra (Volume I)

One of the greatest India novelists of the early twentieth century, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay is unputdownable even seven decades after his death. His canvas of human relationships is rooted in the everyday lives of families in turn-of-the-century Bengal. Saratchandra’s carefully crafted stories, brimming with emotion, and his sharply etched characters, are unforgettable.

This omnibus that brings together eight of his most popular novels in translation is a collection to be cherished.

Saratchandra Chattopadhyay was born on 15 September 1876 in Devanandapur, a village in West Bengal. He grew up in dire poverty and received very little formal education. After spending some of his youth in Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur, Saratchandra left for Burma in 1903, and it was from here that he began to send his stories and novels to magazines in Kolkata. Sensitive and daring, Saratchandra's writings captivated the hearts and minds of readers, and he soon became Bengal's most popular novelist. He returned to Kolkata in 1916, and dedicated himself to writing. Saratchandra was India's first successful professional writer-a person who earned his entire livelihood only from writing. He died in 1938.

Saratchandra remains one of the best-loved Indian novelists of all time: his works have been translated into various languages and made into films as well. Among his best-known novels are Srikanta, Devdas, Palli Samaj (The Village Life), Parineeta (A Married Woman), Charitraheen (The Immoralist), Grihadaha (House of Cinders) and Pather Dabi (The Call of the Road).