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The Earth by Emile Zola. New York. 1980. Penguin Books. 0140443878. Translated from the French & With An Introduction Douglas Parmee. 500 pages. paperback. The cover shows a detail of 'Man with a Hoe' by Millet, in a private collection.  

DESCRIPTION - ‘I want to write the living poem of the Earth; but in human terms, not symbolically.' With humour, knowledge of the peasant terrain and flashes of tenderness, Emile Zola's (1840-1902) naturalistic novel THE EARTH measures the agricultural seasons against the human cycle of birth, marriage and death. Written as part of the vast Rougon - Macquart series, it was Zola's favourite novel and describes the harsh struggles of a farming community to look after their land and control their sometimes wayward society. The Lear-like plot of the decline of the Fouan family through greed and selfishness enables Zola to exploit the full breadth and vigour of his powerful creative imagination. His genius for evocative detail and his vivid, ironic characterization lend an unspoken heroism to this epic tale.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Émile François Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

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Germinal by Emile Zola. New York. 1970. Signet/New American Library. 0451504992. Translated From The French By Stanely & Eleanor Hochman. Afterword By Irving Howe. 448 pages. paperback. CW499. Cover: Lambert. Signet Classic original.

  
DESCRIPTION - Of the several great nineteenth - century French novelists, Emile Zola was by far the most uncompromising in his portrayal of the human condition. In his novels - particularly in the epic twenty - volume Rougon - Macquart' series - Zola relentlessly exposed the violent, perverse, animalistic side of man and society. His unwaveringly truthful, almost cruelly detailed accounts of the interaction of human passions and social problems eventually earned him praise as an important social reformer as well as a founder of literary naturalism. In his own day, however, his pessimistic sagas were often misguidedly condemned as being themselves vice - ridden - at times, even pornographic. GERMINAL, written in 1885 as one of the 'Rougon - Macquart' novels, is perhaps Zola's most representative work. Based on an actual French mining disaster, it tells the story of a young miner, Etienne Lantier, and his rise from humble, inconsequential laborer to impassioned, articulate revolutionary at war with the exploitive capitalistic system. While by no means a Marxist tract, GERMINAL is an epic of class struggle, an account of an individual's awakened social awareness within a world conditioned by lust, greed and betrayal.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Émile François Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

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Zest For Life by Emile Zola. London. 1956. Elek Books. Translated from the French by Jean Stewart. Preface by Angus Wilson. 294 pages. hardcover.

  
DESCRIPTION - La Joie de Vivre is, to the English reader, one of Zola's less familiar books, yet it is a singularly powerful and moving work. It differs from the rest of the Rougon-Macquart series in that its canvas is narrow, its colours are quiet, its interest is psychological rather than social. In this intimate drama of family life, with its handful of characters, Zola treats of a profound and important theme-that of human happiness, of the will to live that sustains mankind through misfortune and anguish. Pauline, an orphan, comes to live with her cousins the Chanteaus, an impoverished bourgeois family in a miserable, lonely fishing village on the Normandy coast. At first, with her radiant unselfish nature, she brings peace and happiness into the home. But. as the story unfolds, she finds herself exploited and victimised-robbed, little by little, of her fortune and then of her love for her cousin Lazare; her generosity makes her a willing victim, her courage enables her to revive after each crisis. Pauline is no plaster saint, but a sensuous, passionate creature; her conflict gives the story its poignancy and its truth. Lazare is at the opposite pole from Pauline, a gifted intellectual consumed by that ‘invisible worm', a basic pessimism that corrodes his will and energy and affections. The other characters contribute to the theme: Chanteau, the uncle, crippled and tortured by gout and yet clinging to life with the same tenacity as the fishermen making their wretched livelihood from the cruel sea that forms the constant background to the story; his wife, a narrow, ambitious but not ill-natured woman, who gradually becomes corrupted by a single act of injustice-her robbery of Pauline. The general tone is of quiet veracity, yet certain scenes attain to that almost visionary intensity that makes ‘realism' a misnomer in Zola's case. The climax of the book is the harrowing scene where Louise, Lazare's wife, gives birth to a child, described with scientific detachment and yet imbued with a powerful symbolic significance. La Joie de Vivre, if it lacks the savage grandeur of La Terre, has a warmth and wisdom and humanity that are no less precious, and, despite the sadness of the story, a basic faith in the best qualities of human nature.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Émile François Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

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The Kill by Emile Zola. New York. 1957. Citadel Press. Translated from the French by A. Teixeira de Mattos. Introduction by Angus Wilson. 274 pages. hardcover. Cover art by Pagram.  

DESCRIPTION - With the publication of THE KILL this series of Zola translations reaches a milestone, for this is one of the key novels in Zola's pitiless analysis of nineteenth-century Paris. This novel plunges deep into what Angus Wilson has called ‘the feverish, complicated world of the adventure-speculators who formed the cafe-society of the Second Empire.' It is the rapacious world of the gamblers who flocked to Paris for their share of the spoils to be carved out of Baron Haussmann's rebuilding of Paris. This was the motive that drew Aristide Saccard to Paris; and here the theme of financial gain becomes intertwined with that of physical desire. As his second wife, Saccard marries Renee, a wealthy and attractive young woman. His son by his first marriage, Maxime, comes home from school and his step-mother, already bored with her money-obsessed husband, introduces him to the shallow, frivolous society fife which is her sole occupation. Little by little, as Maxime grows up, seduces the servant girl, takes mistresses, has affairs with his stepmother's friends, Renee herself falls in love with her stepson - and so comes about the half-incestuous theme of the book which Zola called ‘a study in money and the flesh'. It is also the powerful portrait of a degenerate world, immeshed in the lust for gain and pleasure.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Émile François Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

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Madeleine Ferat by Emile Zola. New York. 1957. Citadel Press. Translated from the French by Alec Brown. 266 pages. hardcover. Cover art by Pagram.  

DESCRIPTION - Can a woman's first love affair leave so strong an imprint on her body and mind that it will unalterably affect her marriage with another? This ancient belief is the mainspring of Madeleine Ferat, one of Zola's most disturbing novels. Madeleine almost by chance takes a lover when she is young. The affair is brief but she is truly in love, and the man, Jacques, leaves her. He is believed dead when she marries the weak, tenderhearted Guillaume. When Jacques eventually returns, the years of Madeleine's loyalty and gentleness towards Guillaume count for nothing. The past is too strong: Madeleine cannot forget Jacques-and she discovers that he was, by cruel chance, her husband's closest friend. Zola uses this melodramatic plot to such effect that the tragic battle of loyalties and the ultimate disaster are as unforgettable as are the pictures of his protagonists.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Émile François Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

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Savage Paris by Emile Zola. New York. 1955. Citadel Press. Translated from the French by David Hughes & Marie-Jacqueline Mason. Preface by Hugh Shelley. 296 pages. hardcover. Cover art by Pagram.  

DESCRIPTION - Zola's theme in Savage Paris is the contrast, which he sees as a conflict, between the ‘lean and hungry' of this world and those that ‘are fat and sleep o'nights'; between the ascetic and the sensualist, the idealist and the materialist, the revolutionary and the conservative. Set in the great Parisian market, Les Halles, the book shows the impact on a complacent middle-class family, the Quenu's, of a lean, fanatical idealist, ex-political prisoner. Florent, Quenu's half-brother, who has suffered gaol and transportation for his share in the Revolution of 1848, is at first pitied and made welcome, for the Quenus are. by their lights, kindly folk; they try to tame him and persuade him to take the respectable job as inspector in the Halles. Florent, utterly unworldly, fails to satisfy them to compromise with corruption, or to make allowances for the petty intrigues and rivalries around him; he antagonises Quenu's wife Lise by his friendship with her rival Louise, the fishwife; and far from abandoning his subversive beliefs he joins a small group of left-wingers who eventually plot an uprising against the Emperor. The book ends tragically with Florent being taken back to gaol, while the superficial calm and prosperity that mask the inner corruption of the place return, as the scum forms again on a pond after a stone has momentarily disturbed it. And the last word is spoken by Claude Lantier, the painter who throughout acts as chorus, viewing the whole scene with an artist's detachment; ‘What rascals these respectable people are'! The most striking feature of the book is the exuberant and sustained descriptive power which gives us the appearance and atmosphere of the great market in all its , aspects-gives us its shapes and colours and its very smells, a triumph both of realism and of imagination. It is almost 50 years since Le Venire de Paris, the book's original title, was available in an English edition, and this sensitive and accomplished translation at last conveys to the English reader Zola's special genius in its full maturity.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Émile François Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

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Drunkard by Emile Zola. New York. 1958. Citadel Press. Translated from the French by Arthur Symons. Introduction by Alec Brown. 408 pages. hardcover. Cover art by Pagram. 

DESCRIPTION - In Zola's great series of novels showing the life of successive generations of a French family, DRUNKARD (L'Assommoir) is one of the most outstanding works. It tells the story of the marriage of Coupeau and Gervaise and the birth of their daughter Nana (to whom another outstanding novel in the series is devoted). This simple plot enables Zola to give full rein to his talent for the portrayal of character and environment. As no other writer he has re-created the pullulating atmosphere of the Parisian slums in all their grandeur and horror, such as not even Dickens could ever have achieved. More than that, in Coupeau and Gervaise he has created a working-class hero and heroine, who, for all their human weaknesses, can stand comparison with any of the masterpieces of character portrayal in the world's literature. Yet they come to grief. Why? It is not the least subtle of Zola's gift that he can see the inter-action between their degrading environment and the flaws in their character, made manifest in their patronage of Colombe's Bar. Here, the sinister still in the backyard brewing its poison, day in, day out, is the symbol of their degeneration. Yet it would be entirely wrong to look on Drunkard as a Victorian moral tale of downfall through alcohol. It is one of the great dramatic sagas of metropolitan life.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Émile François Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

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The Bachura Scandal and Other Stories and Sketches by Jaroslav Hasek. London. 1991. Angel Books. 0946162417. Translated from the Czech by Alan Menhennet. 160 pages. paperback. Front cover - original illustration by Josef Lada (accompanying the story ROBBERY AND MURDER IN COURT.  

DESCRIPTION - Jaroslav Hasek wrote THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK in the last years of his life (1921-3); but he was already a highly entertaining humorist and satirist before the First World War. This selection of 32 pre-war stories and sketches of Prague life  - most of them here translated into English for the first time  - revels in the seething bureaucratic world of the Czech capital that was also an Austrian provincial city. How a plant-loving retired librarian gets a reputation as a hooligan; the sad fate of an idealistic mission to protect the morals of country girls arriving in Prague for the first time; the ten-year delay experienced by a Czech, artificially remodelled after a serious accident abroad, attempting to pass through Austrian customs on his way home . . . With unabashed relish, Hasek documents and celebrates the Disorder Principle in life  - as active today as when these stories were first written.

Jaroslav Hašek (April 30, 1883 – January 3, 1923) was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer and anarchist best known for his novel The Good Soldier Švejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures, which has been translated into sixty languages. He also wrote some 1,500 short stories. He was a journalist, bohemian, and practical joker. Hašek was born in Prague, Bohemia (then within Austria-Hungary, now part of the Czech Republic), the son of high-school math teacher Josef Hašek and his wife Katerina. Poverty forced the family, with three children - another son Bohuslav, three years Hašek's younger, and an orphan cousin Maria - to move often, more than fifteen times during his infancy. He never knew a real home, and this rootlessness clearly influenced his life of wanderlust. When he was thirteen, Hašek's father died from excessive alcohol intake, and his mother was unable to raise him firmly. The teenage boy dropped out of high school at the age of 15 to become a druggist, but eventually graduated from business school. He worked briefly as a bank clerk in 1903, before embarking a career as a freelance writer and journalist. At the end of 1910/early 1911 he was also a dog salesman (a profession he was to attribute to his hero Švejk and from which some of the improbable anecdotes told by Švejk are drawn). In 1906 he joined the anarchist movement, having taken part in the 1897 anti-German riots in Prague as a schoolboy. He gave regular lectures to groups of proletarian workers and, in 1907, became the editor of the anarchist journal Komuna. As an anarchist in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his movements were closely monitored by the police and he was arrested and imprisoned on a regular basis; his offenses include numerous cases of vandalism and at least one case of assaulting a police officer, for which he spent a month in prison. He satirized the lengths to which the Austro-Hungarian police would go to entrap suspected political subversives in the opening chapters of The Good Soldier Švejk. Hašek met Jarmila Mayerová in 1907, and fell in love with her. However, due to his bohemian lifestyle, her parents found him an unsuitable match for their daughter. In response to this, Hašek attempted to back away from his radical politics and get a settled job as a writer. When he was arrested for desecrating a flag in Prague, Mayerová's parents took her into the country, in hope that this would end their relationship. This move was unsuccessful in that it failed to end the affair, but it did result in Hašek renewing his focus on writing. In 1909 he had sixty-four short stories published, over twice as many as in any previous year, and he was also named as the editor of the journal The Animal World. This job did not last long, however, as he was soon dismissed for publishing articles about imaginary animals which he had dreamed up (though this furnished further material for Švejk). On May 23 1910, he married Jarmila Mayerová. The marriage proved an unhappy one and lasted little more than a year. Mayerová went back to live with her parents in 1911 after he was caught trying to fake his own death. At the outbreak of World War I, Hašek lived periodically with cartoonist Josef Lada, who later illustrated the Good Soldier Švejk. Eventually he was drafted and joined the army; some of the characters in Švejk are based on people he met during the war. He did not spend long fighting in the front line, being captured by the Russians on September 24 1915. At the camp in Totskoye he contracted typhus but later on had a more comfortable existence. In June 1916 he was recruited as a volunteer to join the Czechoslovak Brigade, a unit of mainly Czech volunteers that were fighting the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This unit was later to become known as the Czechoslovak Legions. There he acted respectively as a clerk, journalist, soldier and recruitment agent until February 1918. In March 1918 the Czechoslovak Legions embarked on a journey to join the Western Front via Vladivostok. Hašek disagreed with this move and opted to leave the legion in favour of Czech and Russian revolutionaries. From October 1918 he joined the Red Army, mainly working as a recruiter and propaganda writer. In 1920 he remarried (although still married to Jarmila). He eventually returned to Prague in December 1920. However, in some circles he was not a popular figure, being branded a traitor and a bigamist, and struggled to find a publisher for his works. Before the war, in 1912, he had published the book The Good Soldier Švejk and other strange stories (Dobrý voják Švejk a jiné podivné historky) where the figure of Švejk appeared for the first time; but it was only after the war in his famous novel that Švejk became a sancta simplicitas, a cheerful idiot who joked about the war as if it were a tavern brawl. By this time, Hašek had become gravely ill and dangerously overweight. He no longer wrote, but dictated the chapters of Švejk from his bedroom in the village of Lipnice, where he died in on January 3 1923 of heart failure.

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The Red Commissar by Jaroslav Hasek. New York. 1981. Dial Press. 0385272375. Translated from the Czech by Cecil Parrott. Illustrated by Josef Lada. 288 pages. hardcover. 

DESCRIPTION - Jaroslav Hasek is best known for his satirical masterpiece The Good Soldier Svejk. That has been described as 'Perhaps the funniest novel ever written.' Although his life was short and chaotic, Hasek did however write more as this volume tellingly reveals. In his preface, Cecil Parrott, translator and biographer of Hasek, crisply defines its purpose.. 'All the world has heard of Svejk, but few are familiar with the countless other characters Hasek created in his stories and sketches, which together with his feuilletons and articles are though to number some twelve hundred. The best of these deserve to be made available to the Western public and are included in this volume.' The range is wide. There is a selection from his Bugulma stories (Hasek as Bolshevik and Red Commissar), some early Svejk stories, reminiscences of Hasek's apprenticeship days, and the hilariously funny speeches made by Hasek when promoting his political 'Party of Moderate Progress within the bounds of the Law'.

Jaroslav Hašek (April 30, 1883 – January 3, 1923) was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer and anarchist best known for his novel The Good Soldier Švejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures, which has been translated into sixty languages. He also wrote some 1,500 short stories. He was a journalist, bohemian, and practical joker. Hašek was born in Prague, Bohemia (then within Austria-Hungary, now part of the Czech Republic), the son of high-school math teacher Josef Hašek and his wife Katerina. Poverty forced the family, with three children - another son Bohuslav, three years Hašek's younger, and an orphan cousin Maria - to move often, more than fifteen times during his infancy. He never knew a real home, and this rootlessness clearly influenced his life of wanderlust. When he was thirteen, Hašek's father died from excessive alcohol intake, and his mother was unable to raise him firmly. The teenage boy dropped out of high school at the age of 15 to become a druggist, but eventually graduated from business school. He worked briefly as a bank clerk in 1903, before embarking a career as a freelance writer and journalist. At the end of 1910/early 1911 he was also a dog salesman (a profession he was to attribute to his hero Švejk and from which some of the improbable anecdotes told by Švejk are drawn). In 1906 he joined the anarchist movement, having taken part in the 1897 anti-German riots in Prague as a schoolboy. He gave regular lectures to groups of proletarian workers and, in 1907, became the editor of the anarchist journal Komuna. As an anarchist in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his movements were closely monitored by the police and he was arrested and imprisoned on a regular basis; his offenses include numerous cases of vandalism and at least one case of assaulting a police officer, for which he spent a month in prison. He satirized the lengths to which the Austro-Hungarian police would go to entrap suspected political subversives in the opening chapters of The Good Soldier Švejk. Hašek met Jarmila Mayerová in 1907, and fell in love with her. However, due to his bohemian lifestyle, her parents found him an unsuitable match for their daughter. In response to this, Hašek attempted to back away from his radical politics and get a settled job as a writer. When he was arrested for desecrating a flag in Prague, Mayerová's parents took her into the country, in hope that this would end their relationship. This move was unsuccessful in that it failed to end the affair, but it did result in Hašek renewing his focus on writing. In 1909 he had sixty-four short stories published, over twice as many as in any previous year, and he was also named as the editor of the journal The Animal World. This job did not last long, however, as he was soon dismissed for publishing articles about imaginary animals which he had dreamed up (though this furnished further material for Švejk). On May 23 1910, he married Jarmila Mayerová. The marriage proved an unhappy one and lasted little more than a year. Mayerová went back to live with her parents in 1911 after he was caught trying to fake his own death. At the outbreak of World War I, Hašek lived periodically with cartoonist Josef Lada, who later illustrated the Good Soldier Švejk. Eventually he was drafted and joined the army; some of the characters in Švejk are based on people he met during the war. He did not spend long fighting in the front line, being captured by the Russians on September 24 1915. At the camp in Totskoye he contracted typhus but later on had a more comfortable existence. In June 1916 he was recruited as a volunteer to join the Czechoslovak Brigade, a unit of mainly Czech volunteers that were fighting the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This unit was later to become known as the Czechoslovak Legions. There he acted respectively as a clerk, journalist, soldier and recruitment agent until February 1918. In March 1918 the Czechoslovak Legions embarked on a journey to join the Western Front via Vladivostok. Hašek disagreed with this move and opted to leave the legion in favour of Czech and Russian revolutionaries. From October 1918 he joined the Red Army, mainly working as a recruiter and propaganda writer. In 1920 he remarried (although still married to Jarmila). He eventually returned to Prague in December 1920. However, in some circles he was not a popular figure, being branded a traitor and a bigamist, and struggled to find a publisher for his works. Before the war, in 1912, he had published the book The Good Soldier Švejk and other strange stories (Dobrý voják Švejk a jiné podivné historky) where the figure of Švejk appeared for the first time; but it was only after the war in his famous novel that Švejk became a sancta simplicitas, a cheerful idiot who joked about the war as if it were a tavern brawl. By this time, Hašek had become gravely ill and dangerously overweight. He no longer wrote, but dictated the chapters of Švejk from his bedroom in the village of Lipnice, where he died in on January 3 1923 of heart failure.

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Moon Palace by Paul Auster. New York. 1989. Viking Press. 0670825093. 307 pages. hardcover. Jacket photograph by John George.  

DESCRIPTION - ‘It was the summer that men first walked on the moon. I was very young back then, but I did not believe there would ever be a future. I wanted to live dangerously, to push myself as far as I could go, and then see what happened to me when I got there.' Thus begins the mesmerizing narrative of Marco Stanley Fogg - orphan, child of the sixties, a quester by nature, both spiritually and physically. MOON PALACE is his story, a novel that spans three generations, from the early years of this century to the first lunar landings, and that moves from the canyons of Manhattan to the cruelly beautiful landscape of the American West. Filled with suspense, unlikely coincidences, wrenching tragedies, and marvelous flights of lyricism and erudition, the novel carries the reader effortlessly along with Marco on his search for love, for his unknown father, and for the key to the elusive riddle of his origin and his fate. The metaphorical richness and literary accomplishment of Moon Palace is astonishing. In territory and spirit, it recalls the great novels of Dickens, Fielding, and Twain, yet it is also unmistakably the work of a marvelously original modern writer whose every sentence reverberates with rich harmonies of meaning. Already acclaimed for his ‘brilliance and wild imagination' (Washington Post Book World), his ‘love of lore and language' (Russell Banks), and his ‘intelligence and originality' (Don DeLillo), Paul Auster has now written a novel of such power and radiance that it marks him as one of the great American writers of our time.

Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American writer, novelist, memoirist, poet, and filmmaker. His notable works include The New York Trilogy (1987), Moon Palace (1989), The Music of Chance (1990), The Book of Illusions (2002), The Brooklyn Follies (2005), Invisible (2009), Sunset Park (2010), Winter Journal (2012), and 4 3 2 1 (2017).  His essays have appeared in numerous magazines. including The New York Review of Books, Parnassus, and Harper's, and his translations of French poetry have been published widely, both here and in England. Auster has been the recipient of a Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS) Grant for poetry, a Columbia-PEN translation award, and a literary fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in New York City and is the editor of The Random House Book of 20th-Century French Poetry.

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Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Other Writings by Sigmund Freud. London. 2003. Penguin Books. 9780141184050. Translated from the German by John Reddick. Introduction by Mark Edmundson. General editor: Adam Phillips. 271 pages. paperback. Cover: ‘Juliet’, 1945, by Man Ray.  

DESCRIPTION - Includes the essays - ‘On The Introduction of Narcissism', ‘Remembering, Repeating and Working Through', ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle', ‘The Ego and the ID' and ‘Inhibition, Symptom and Fear'. In Freud's view we are driven by the desire for pleasure as well as by the desire to avoid pain. But the pursuit of pleasure has never been a simple thing. Pleasure can be a form of fear, a form of memory and a way of avoiding memory. Above all, as these essays show with remarkable eloquence, pleasure is a way in which we repeat ourselves. The essays collected in this volume explore, as Freud's uniquely subtle and accessible style, the puzzles of pleasure and morality - the enigmas of human development. 

Sigmund Freud (6 May 1856 - 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. Freud was born to Galician Jewish parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg, in the Austrian Empire. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna. Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902. Freud lived and worked in Vienna, having set up his clinical practice there in 1886. In 1938 Freud left Austria to escape the Nazis. He died in exile in the United Kingdom in 1939. In creating psychoanalysis, Freud developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association and discovered transference, establishing its central role in the analytic process. Freud's redefinition of sexuality to include its infantile forms led him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the central tenet of psychoanalytical theory. His analysis of dreams as wish-fulfillments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the underlying mechanisms of repression. On this basis Freud elaborated his theory of the unconscious and went on to develop a model of psychic structure comprising id, ego and super-ego. Freud postulated the existence of libido, an energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which generates erotic attachments, and a death drive, the source of compulsive repetition, hate, aggression and neurotic guilt. In his later work Freud developed a wide-ranging interpretation and critique of religion and culture. Though in overall decline as a diagnostic and clinical practice, psychoanalysis remains influential within psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and across the humanities. As such, it continues to generate extensive and highly contested debate with regard to its therapeutic efficacy, its scientific status, and whether it advances or is detrimental to the feminist cause. Nonetheless, Freud's work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture. In the words of W. H. Auden's 1940 poetic tribute, by the time of Freud's death, he had become "a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives."

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The Psychopathology of Everyday Life by Sigmund Freud. New York. 2003. Penguin Books. 0142437433. Translated from the German by Anthea Bell. Introduction by Paul Keegan. 265 pages. paperback. Cover painting - Rene Magritte, 'The Blood Of All Things' 1927.

  
DESCRIPTION - The most trivial slips of the tongue or pen, Freud believed, can reveal our secret ambitions, money worries, and sexual fantasies. THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE ranks among his most entertaining and accessible works. Starting with the story of how he once forgot the name of an Italian painter - and how a young acquaintance mangled a quotation from Virgil through fears that his girlfriend might be pregnant - it brings together a treasure trove of muddled memories, inadvertent actions, and verbal tangles. Amusing, moving, and deeply revealing of the repressed, hypocritical Viennese society of his day, Freud's dazzling interpretations provide the perfect introduction to psychoanalytic thinking in action.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Sigmund Freud (6 May 1856 - 23 September 1939), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud, was an Austrian neurologist who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis. Freud's parents were poor, but they ensured his education. Freud chose medicine as a career and qualified as a doctor at the University of Vienna, subsequently undertaking research into cerebral palsy, aphasia and microscopic neuroanatomy at the Vienna General Hospital. This led in turn to the award of a University lectureship in neuropathology, a post he resigned once he had decided to go into private practice. On the basis of his clinical practice Freud went on to develop theories about the unconscious mind and the mechanism of repression, and created psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient (or ‘analysand') and a psychoanalyst. Though psychoanalysis has declined as a therapeutic practice, it has helped inspire the development of many other forms of psychotherapy, some diverging from Freud's original ideas and approach. Freud postulated the existence of libido (an energy with which mental process and structures are invested), developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association (in which patients report their thoughts without reservation and in whichever order they spontaneously occur), discovered transference (the process by which patients displace on to their analysts feelings based on their experience of earlier figures in their lives) and established its central role in the analytic process, and proposed that dreams help to preserve sleep by representing sensory stimulii as fulfilled wishes that would otherwise awake the dreamer. He was also a prolific essayist, drawing on psychoanalysis to contribute to the interpretation and critique of culture. Psychoanalysis remains influential within psychiatry and across the humanities. As such it continues to generate extensive debate, notably over its scientific status and as to whether it advances or is detrimental to the feminist cause. Regardless of the scientific content of his theories, Freud's work has suffused intellectual thought and popular culture to the extent that in 1939 W. H. Auden wrote, in a poem dedicated to him: ‘to us he is no more a person / now but a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives'.

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The Joke and Its Relation To the Unconscious by Sigmund Freud. New York. 2003. Penguin Books. 0142437441. Translated from the German by Joyce Crick. Introduction by John Carey. 230 pages. paperback. Cover painting - Rene Magritte, 'The Art of Living'.  

DESCRIPTION - THE JOKE AND ITS RELATION TO THE UNCONSCIOUS explains how jokes provide immense pleasure by releasing us from our inhibitions and allowing us to express sexual, aggressive, playful, or cynical instincts that would otherwise remain hidden. In elaborating this theory, Freud brings together a rich collection of puns, witticisms, one-liners, and anecdotes, many of which throw a vivid light on the society of early twentieth-century Vienna. Jokes, as Freud shows, are a method of giving ourselves away.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Sigmund Freud (6 May 1856 - 23 September 1939), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud, was an Austrian neurologist who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis. Freud's parents were poor, but they ensured his education. Freud chose medicine as a career and qualified as a doctor at the University of Vienna, subsequently undertaking research into cerebral palsy, aphasia and microscopic neuroanatomy at the Vienna General Hospital. This led in turn to the award of a University lectureship in neuropathology, a post he resigned once he had decided to go into private practice. On the basis of his clinical practice Freud went on to develop theories about the unconscious mind and the mechanism of repression, and created psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient (or ‘analysand') and a psychoanalyst. Though psychoanalysis has declined as a therapeutic practice, it has helped inspire the development of many other forms of psychotherapy, some diverging from Freud's original ideas and approach. Freud postulated the existence of libido (an energy with which mental process and structures are invested), developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association (in which patients report their thoughts without reservation and in whichever order they spontaneously occur), discovered transference (the process by which patients displace on to their analysts feelings based on their experience of earlier figures in their lives) and established its central role in the analytic process, and proposed that dreams help to preserve sleep by representing sensory stimulii as fulfilled wishes that would otherwise awake the dreamer. He was also a prolific essayist, drawing on psychoanalysis to contribute to the interpretation and critique of culture. Psychoanalysis remains influential within psychiatry and across the humanities. As such it continues to generate extensive debate, notably over its scientific status and as to whether it advances or is detrimental to the feminist cause. Regardless of the scientific content of his theories, Freud's work has suffused intellectual thought and popular culture to the extent that in 1939 W. H. Auden wrote, in a poem dedicated to him: ‘to us he is no more a person / now but a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives'.

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The Printer of Malgudi by R. K. Narayan. East Lansing. 1957. Michigan State University Press. 276 pages. hardcover.  

DESCRIPTION - The artful, ‘I-can-do-anything' printer of the Truth Printing Works has the same formula for every customer: ‘Trust Sampath and he will free you of all unnecessary worries,' He promises any. thing just to keep people happy: to help the landlord marry off his granddaughter, to search for the beautiful girl a bank clerk yearns to find, and, of course, to deliver on time all his printing orders (which always were to be the best job the customers could get in all South India). One customer to whom the printer gives his most dedicated service is the pensive Srinivas, editor of a weekly paper, The Banner, which within its twelve pages of foolscap attempts to set the world right. The world, to Srinivas, is like a half-raised structure, the other half of which might go up or not. The Banner, thus, has twin work to do: to attack ruthlessly the pig-headedness of people and to prod them into pursuing perfection. When the Truth Printing Works is forced to shut down due to lack of funds, Srinivas and a number of others follow the printer into his next ‘great' venture, the making of an epic film that will turn Malgudi into the ‘Hollywood of India.' In almost typically Hollywood fashion, the company finds a great epic to produce. The principals hold numerous story conferences and find ‘great' stars for their cast, to say nothing of being beset with numerous jealousies among the stars and directors, Rather inevitably, far from creating a ‘Hollywood of India,' the venture proves to be the undoing of most of the characters involved, As his dream fades before his eyes, Mr. Sampath has to go into hiding from his creditors. Only Srinivas survives the film venture, philosophically going back and re-establishing The Banner.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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Waiting For the Mahatma by R. K. Narayan. London. 1955. Methuen & Company. 256 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by R. K. Laxman.  

DESCRIPTION - It was, perhaps, inevitable that sooner or later some writer would take the last five years of Mahatma Gandhi's life and use them as the background for a novel. What is appropriate, however, is that India's most distinguished novelist, R. K. Narayan, should be that writer. WAITING FOR THE MAHATMA is the story of two of Gandhi's young disciples, who fall in love but are forbidden by the Mahatma to marry in haste. The story starts out in Mr. Narayan's beloved, make-believe town of Malgudi, South India. Here a young man, who has recently come into his inheritance, catches sight of a beautiful and fragile young lady collecting contributions to support the Mahatma's work. The young man falls in love, in the time-honored manner, ‘at first sight.' In the beginning it is his fascination with the young lady, rather than his belief in Gandhi's works, which draws him into the circle of Gandhi's followers. But gradually, through the purity of his love, he finds not only the satisfaction of being near his adored, but also the spiritual fulfillment of working with the Mahatma towards freedom for India. Finally, after many years, with freedom won, the Mahatma gives his consent to the marriage of the two young people. No sooner has this happened, than Gandhi, one tragic evening, goes out to prayers and is assassinated. It is doubtful if the Mahatma and all he stood for has ever been so clearly interpreted to the Western world as in this novel. This work will appeal not only to those who believe in the novel as an art form, but also to those interested in the life and times of one of the greatest men ever produced by India. Mr. Narayan's previous novels-THE FINANCIAL EXPERT, GRATEFUL TO LIFE AND DEATH, SWAMI AND FRIENDS and THE BACHELOR OF ARTS-were accorded critical acclaim throughout the nation's press. There is no doubt that Mr. Narayan ranks as one of the greatest living writers in his field.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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The Man-Eater of Malgudi by R. K. Narayan. New York. 1961. Viking Press. 250 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Bill English.  

DESCRIPTION - In R. K. Narayan's 1961 THE MAN-EATER OF MALGUDI, Vasu, an eccentric taxidermist invades upon the conservative home of Nataraj, a local printer, in the fictional town of Malgudi. Narayan tells this Postcolonial tale in a comic style creating memorable characters and situations.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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The Guide by R. K. Narayan. New York. 1958. Viking Press. 220 pages. hardcover. Endpapers and Jacket design by R. K. Laxman.

DESCRIPTION - THE GUIDE is a 1958 novel written in English by the Indian author R. K. Narayan. It is one of the author's most critically acclaimed novels. Like most of his works the novel is based in Malgudi, the fictional town in South India. Raju's phenomenal success as a guide was based on his unerring perception of what a tourist wished to be guided to - whether the tourist had already thought of it or not. So enthusiastically intuitive, so exquisitely corrupt, he became known as the most delightful guide in all India, and this quite logically resulted in his becoming the consort, lover, and manager - successively but not always - of a beautiful and famous dancing girl. The multiple talents he brought to this new career naturally culminated in his going to jail. Upon being released, an event which plunged the guards and prisoners into gloom, he started home to Malgudi. While resting in an abandoned temple he was mistaken by a peasant for a holy man. The villagers brought food and offerings and allowed Raju to talk - an occupation always pleasing to him. As the days passed, Raju began to understand that, with the exception of himself, everyone was better off in the belief that he was a holy man. When the drought came and Raju was faced with the problem of what he had become, he made an entirely characteristic decision. In the setting of his mythical South Indian town of Malgudi, immortalized in his other novels, this brilliant narrator of manners and morals has given us the racy and colloquial, ironic and beguiling story of Raju, the reluctant holy man.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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The Financial Expert by R. K. Narayan. East Lansing. 1953. Michigan State University Press. Introduction by Graham Greene. 178 pages. hardcover.  

DESCRIPTION - ‘The financial expert's office was under a banyan tree: his office furniture an old tin box. From the first pages of Mr. Narayan's new novel we are back in the town of Malgudi with which for nearly twenty years we have been as familiar as with our own birthplace. We know, like the streets of childhood, Market Road, the snuff stalls, the vendors of toothpaste, Lawley Extension with its superior villas, the Regal Haircutting Saloon, the river, the railway. We expect at any moment to see the Bachelor of Arts waving a long farewell to a friend from the platform, small Swami wrapped in his adventurous dreams coming down Market Road, Mr. Sampath at the door of his dubious film studio. It is as if through their friendship we have been able to meet all these new - and rather doubtful - characters: Margayya, the financial expert, himself, who graduates from the banyan tree to publishing, and back to more elaborate and more crooked banking (but how innocent is all his crookedness); Dr. Pal, ‘journalist, correspondent and author'; and Margayya's son Balu whose progress from charming childhood to spoilt frustrated manhood is perhaps the saddest episode Mr. Narayan has written. All Mr. Narayan's comedies have had the undertone of sadness. Their gentle irony and absence of condemnation remind us how difficult comedy is in the West today - farce, savage, boisterous, satirical, is easy, but comedy needs a strong framework of social convention with which the author sympathises but which he does not share. Miss Compton-Burnett is forced to place her stories in the Edwardian or Victorian past: Mr. Henry Green substitutes elaborate conventions of his own for our social vacancies, so that his characters move in the kind of dance we learnt at kindergarten - 'one step forward, one step to the right, twirl on the right toe.' But the life of Malgudi - never ruffled by politics - proceeds in exactly the same way as it has done for centuries, and the juxtaposition of the age-old convention and the modern character provides much of the comedy. The astrologer is still called in to compare the horoscopes for a marriage, but now if you pay him enough he will fix them the way you want: the financial expert sits under his banyan tree opposite the new Central Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank. To push away a tumbler of milk is to insult a goddess. The caste of a great-grandfather is still of great importance. Margayya, astute about mortgages, consumed by the modern desire for wealth and motor-cars, yet consults the priest of the Goddess Lakshmi and finds himself seeking a red lotus to pound up in the milk drawn from a smoke-coloured cow (the 40 days of prayer have results: he becomes the owner of a pornographic manuscript called first Bed Life or The Science of Marital Happiness but afterwards, through the caution of the printer, Domestic Harmony). Margayya - the sad ambitious absurd financial expert - is perhaps the most engaging of all Mr. Narayan's characters. In his ambitions for his boy, his huge dreams, his unintended villainies and his small vanities, his domestic tenderness, he has the hidden poetry and the unrecognised pathos we so often find in Tchechov's characters who on the last page vanish into life. ‘He knew that he had a scheme somewhere at the back of his mind, a scheme which would place him among the elect in society, which would make people flock to him and look to him for guidance, advice and management. He could not yet say what the scheme would be, but he sensed its presence . . . he felt he ought to wait on that inspiration with reverence and watchfulness.' Whom next shall I meet in Malgudi? That is the thought that comes to me when I close a novel of Mr. Narayan's. I don't wait for another novel. I wait to go out of my door into those loved and shabby streets and see with excitement and a certainty of pleasure a stranger approaching, past the bank, the cinema, the haircutting saloon, a stranger who will greet me I know with some unexpected and revealing phrase that will open a door on to yet another human existence.' - from the introduction by GRAHAM GREENE.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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The English Teacher by R. K. Narayan. London. 1945. Eyre & Spottiswoode. 184 pages. hardcover.

DESCRIPTION - This novel completes the informal trilogy which began with SWAMI AND FRIENDS and THE BACHELOR OF ARTS. The protagonist, Krishna, is an English teacher at the same college he had attended as a student. Although Krishna has recently married, his wife Susila and their daughter live with his parents-in-law some miles away. The story opens with his immediate family deciding to join him in Malgudi. Krishna is initially frightened by this new state of affairs, but he soon finds that his love for both his wife and child grows deeper than he could have imagined. The description of Krishna's married life - the first few years of happiness, the excruciating agony during the weeks of Susila's death, the last journey to the cremation grounds - is astonishingly moving and almost flawless piece of writing.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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My Days: A Memoir by R. K. Narayan. New York. 1974. Viking Press. 0670498181. 186 pages. hardcover.

DESCRIPTION - In his usual winning, humorous style, R. K. Narayan shares his life story, beginning in his grandmother's garden in Madras with his ferocious pet peacock. As a young boy with no interest in school, he trains grasshoppers, scouts, and generally takes part in life's excitements. Against the advice of all, especially his commanding headmaster father, the dreaming Narayan takes to writing fiction, and one of his pieces is accepted by Punch magazine (his ‘first prestige publication'). Soon his life includes bumbling British diplomats, curious movie moguls, evasive Indian officials, eccentric journalists, and ‘the blind urge' to fall in love. R. K. Narayan's larger-than-life perception of the human comedy is at once acute and forgiving, and always true to it.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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Mr. Sampath by R. K. Narayan. London. 1949. Eyre & Spottiswoode. . Very scarce early work by India's greatest English-using novelist. Nice copy in publisher's tan cloth, lettered in red. Bears the original UK price of 9/6d and advertisements for the author's 3 previous books from this publisher on rear panel.. 219 pages. hardcover.  

DESCRIPTION - Fresh from the presses of the Truth Printing Works, the weekly edition of The Banner enjoys a certain distinction. Srinivas, its editor and sole contributor, concerns himself with artistic and intellectual problems: Mr. Sampath, its printer, amicably shoulders the financial burdens. When the paper folds - a surprise to them both - Mr. Sampath sees a way to save an equable partnership. With splendid magnanimity he arranges for Srinivas to write film scripts for Sunrise Productions. Unfortunately, the glamor of it all goes to Mr. Sampath's head, and his sudden change of fortune leads to sublime, unmitigated chaos.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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Grateful To Life & Death by R. K. Narayan. East Lansing. 1953. Michigan State College Press. 213 pages. hardcover.  

DESCRIPTION - In his autobiographical memoir MY DAYS: A MEMOIR (1974), R. K. Narayan declared that GRATEFUL TO LIFE AND DEATH was the most autobiographical of all of his novels, very little of it, in his account, being fiction. This novel completes the informal trilogy which began with SWAMI AND FRIENDS and THE BACHELOR OF ARTS. The protagonist, Krishna, is an English teacher at the same college he had attended as a student. Although Krishna has recently married, his wife Susila and their daughter live with his parents-in-law some miles away. The story opens with his immediate family deciding to join him in Malgudi. Krishna is initially frightened by his new state of affairs, but he soon finds that his love for both his wife and child grows deeper than he could have imagined. ‘Mr. Narayan has repeatedly been compared with Chekhov. Ordinarily such comparisons are gratuitous and strained, but in this case there are such clear and insistent echoes that any careful reader will be aware of them. There is that sense of rightness which transcends mere structure. There is the inexplicable blending of tragedy and humor. Most of all, there is a brooding awareness of fate which makes the story seem not authored, but merely translated.' - J.F. Muehl, Saturday Review. ‘[Narayan] does not deal in exemplary fates, and the Western novel's machinery of retribution is far too grandiose for him. . . . In Narayan's world, scores are not settled but dissolved, recycled, restated. 'Both of us will shed our forms soon and perhaps we could meet again, who knows? So goodbye for the present.' These are the concluding words for the novel A TIGER FOR MALGUDI, but they constitute a universal epilogue one could append to most of Narayan's fiction.' - Russell Davies, Times Literary Supplement.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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Gods, Demons, and Others by R. K. Narayan. New York. 1964. Viking Press. With decorations by R. K. Laxman. 241 pages. hardcover.

DESCRIPTION - Following in the footsteps of the storytellers of his native India, R. K. Narayan has produced his own versions of tales of gods, demons, magicians, king, and virtuous wives from the Ramayana and the Mahabarata. Carefully selecting those stories which include the strongest characters, and omitting the theological or social commentary that would have drawn out the telling, Narayan informs these fascinating myths with his urbane humor and graceful style. "Mr. Narayan gives vitality and an original viewpoint to the most ancient of legends, lacing them with his own blend of satire, pertinent explanation and thoughtful commentary." - Santha Rama Rau, New York Times. "Narayan's narrative style is swift, firm, graceful, and lucid . . . thoroughly knowledgeable, skillful, entertaining. One could hardly hope for more." - Rosanne Klass, Times Literary Supplement.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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An Astrologer's Day and Other Stories by R. K. Narayan. London. 1947. Eyre & Spottiswoode. hardcover.

DESCRIPTION - Most of these stories were first published in the Hindu of Madras, and published in Great Britain in 1947 by Eyre and Spottiswoode. CONTENTS: An Astrologer's Day; The Missing Mail; The Doctor's Word; Gateman's Gift; The Roman Image; The Blind Dog; Fellow-Feeling; The Watchman; The Tiger's Claw; The Performing Child; Iswaran; The Evening Gift; A Snake in the Grass; An Accident; Such Perfection; A Career; Father's Help; The Snake-Song; Forty-five a Month; Dasi the Bridegroom; Old Man of the Temple; Out of Business; Old Bones; Attila; The Axe; Engine Trouble; All Avoidable Talk; Fruition at Forty; Grime and Punishment; Under the Banyan Tree.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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A Writer's Nightmare: Selected Essays 1958-1988 by R. K. Narayan. New York. 1988. Penguin Books. 0140107916. 240 pages. paperback.  

DESCRIPTION - Essays in this volume discuss weddings, mathematics, coffee, umbrellas, teachers, newspapers, monkeys, architecture, the caste system, lovers, topics simple and not so simple, all revealing the very essence of India. Introducing this selection of essays, Narayan writes, ‘I have always been drawn to the personal essay in which you see something of the author himself apart from the theme. the scope for such a composition is unlimited, the mood may be sombre, hilarious or satirical and the theme may range from what the author notices from his window to what he sees in his waste-paper basket to a world cataclysm.' A Writer's Nightmare is the marvellous result of Narayan's liking for the personal essay.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 - 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan's first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayan's works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for Broadway. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his prose and diction. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. Novelist Graham Greene said of Narayan, ‘Since the death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.'

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