Customer Reviews

Bengal Nights: A Novel

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This book is a dream, a message, a powerful explosion of signs, a bloody and mangled corpse left by the passage of some hurricane. In the year of the great success of "Monsoon Wedding" this book more than ever deserves to be read and wept about.

Is this the confession of a repentant Adam, come to weep at the gates of Eden where he so briefly knew bliss? Is it the war story of a proud and Faustian soul who learns European reason after tasting the blood of innocents? Is it the testimony of an emasculated Abelard, who can remember but can no longer experience the passion of his wretched Eloise?

All of these, all of these and much that cannot be justly set forth besides. The style is awkward, at times clumsy, but the life of this book is so vivid, so true, so radiant and bewildering, it reminds me of what many religious teachers have said: that if a man tried to look at God directly, though he would be filled with inexpressible joy, he would also certainly die. In that sense this book is a near-death experience.

It gets off to a shaky start, a bit like a model-T Ford being wound up on a dusty road, but soon you are captured into a whirlwind of passion and ideas, a kind of psychedelia, with levels and reversals of meaning radiating off into space in every direction: as the other reviewers have said -- colonialism, Hinduism and Christianity (and what is Christianity but prophetic Judaism captured and set to music by exiled Indian temple priests), romance, pride, purity, childhood, selfishness, devotion, promise, punishment, renunciation...

Like all Romanian poets, Eliade's motto should be "Lord, grant me only this vision!" His vision burns with the intensity of an acetylene arc. May the reader shield his eyes and turn it to good use.

As a graduate student at the University of Chicago in the early 1970's, I was assigned to shepherd visiting scholar Maitreyi Devi around during her visit there to speak on Tagore (Rabi Thakur). She requested that I take her to Mircea Eliade's Mead Theological Seminary office. What happened in Eliade's office was a bit puzzling. But several days later a Bengali faculty member told me about Eliade's book and their earlier love.
I've been telling that story for thirty years. This spring I told it to another Bengali scholar at a cocktail party in Canada. He was stunned. He said, "You are in her book!" I bought the second book, and I am in it. The incident is the last chapter of Devi's "It Does Not Die" - I am the Shirley in the story.
Now I have an even better story to tell.

When this book first appeared they said that, same as every century has its love story novel, the XXth century has "Bengal Nights" (original title: "Maitrey") for its own love story novel. I used to believe that a scientist such as Eliade couldn't write fine literature. After reading "Bengal Nights" I found out I was mistaking. It is an excellent written book that tells an wonderfull story.

I was excited to receive this book after I already read it in the native language of the author. Although the translation is a little bit clumsy, it still retains the mystery and the excitement of the love story. I love the reading and the book is in very good condition!

I read this book when I was about sixteen, and it moved me profoundly.BENGAL NIGHTS, which is known in original version as Maitrey recounts the story of two lovers by the name of Alain and Maitrey. Of course that the story has something true, indeed, Eliade fell in love with Dasgupta's daughter Maitrey.Just imagine that the love story narrated in the novel, happened in reality. Also, must be remembered that Eliade was very much influenced by the "balkan supreme sacrifice" when he wrote Bengal Nights. And if you read more of his work, you will see that the same kind of sacrifice is found in "From Primitives to.." or in "The myth of the eternal return". I am talking, of course, the tracico-dacico mythology, where the death is seen not as the ultimate step of existence but as a gate to another world. For example, the dacians were proud to die, and only the most worthy of them was put to death. Now, in the novel you can see the same thing , but the supreme sacrifice is dedicated to love. And here comes the contribution of the indian mythology, where love and sexuality play a very important role. Whereas in the european mythology, the love is concealed by the Christian Church. Well, this is the substratum of the story anyway. And is just an opinion of mine. Nevertheless, add this book to the shopping cart now, and you will experience something that a very few books could make you feel!

I have read "Na Hanyate" by Maitreyi Devi a few years ago and I read this book a few days back. Both the books are very moving in their own way. Many have mentioned of the fantasies in Bengal Nights. From reading the book it does feel like the descriptions of the nights and love making are indeed from a fantasy and not real. But if you leave that part aside, the sadness which is described after their sudden separation seems very real. The way author has described his feelings of dissolution is very touching and makes one feel helpless. His emotions as expressed in most part seems true and honest. It will leave you thinking for a while what could have been done to stop the disaster in their young lives that happened almost a century ago. May be nothing...may be something...who knows.

Bengal Nights is the fictional version of the true romance between Mircea Eliade and a young Bengali teenager named Maitreyi Devi. I was so intrigued by their story: apparently the real Maitreyi read this book 30 or so odd years after this book was published and wrote her own version of the romance. I was also starved for a good book to read about India, that I couldn't wait to read this book. Now, that I've read the book, I feel a little cheated, the story isn't as fascinating as I imagined, a little appalled, I cannot imagine such a scandalous love affair taking place in a conservative society such as the India of the 30's, and a little sad for a love affair that turned to nought. It is an easy book to read and can be read in one sitting. Would I recommend this book? Yes . . . but read it without any expectations - I was expecting a tragic romance. The story is tragic but I was more annoyed than sad at the fool-hardiness of the whole affair. Also, I feel whoever who reads this book must read Maitreyi's account of the romance, to get to the bottom of the story.