The Post Office [Hardcover]

Rabindranath Tagore (Author), Andrew Robinson (Translator), Anita Desai (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

While a young boy rests on doctor's orders, he watches the people pass outside his window and greets all of them, and as he does, he teaches them and the reader some of life's simple truths.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

One of India most cherished renaissance figures, Rabindranath Tagore [1861-1941]was a maker of modern Indian mind and civilization, he was a story writer, novelist, painter and song composer. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 52 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312147031
• ISBN-13: 978-0312147037
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,644,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Post Office, May 6, 2004

By 

Mark Schiff "ggggggggggggggwiz" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Post Office (Hardcover)

This short play is greatr. It made me think about my own life and what I may or may not be doing. It made me think about what is real or unreal. It's well worth the half hour it takes to read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After Death, There's Life, December 23, 2008

By 

Daniel L. Berek (Flanders, NJ, United States) - See all my reviews

This play by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is one of those pieces of literature that truly deserves to be remembered and admired as it was in London in 1914, when William Butler Yeats remarked that this little play "...is very perfectly constructe and conveys to the right audience an emotion of gentleness and peace." To Western eyes, at first glance, a play about a dying child may see morbid. The reader and theatregoer quickly realize, however, that Amal, the moribund boy, simply wants to experience the world through they eyes of a common dairyman and receive a letter from the king. He appreciates the small things in life and wants to live his life to the fullest, without pity or decadence. The thought of death barely enters his mind.

It is, then, without coincidence, that the play was aired over the radio during Europe's darkest hours under Nazi occupation in World War II. The most poignant performance of the play was in July 1942, in the Warsaw Ghetto, when the Polish doctor, educator, writer, and children's rights activist Janusz Korczak had the children in his orphanage stage this play. As with the central character, Amal, the children were better able to accept death as part of life, preparing for certain death that awaited them. Said Korczak, "The play is more than a text - it is a mood, it conveys more than emotions - it is an experience, and the actors are more than actors -they are children."

In accepting death one can affirm life.

5.0 out of 5 stars After Death, There's Life, December 23, 2008

By 

Daniel L. Berek (Flanders, NJ, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Post Office (Paperback)

This play by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is one of those pieces of literature that truly deserves to be remembered and admired as it was in London in 1914, when William Butler Yeats remarked that this little play "...is very perfectly constructe and conveys to the right audience an emotion of gentleness and peace." To Western eyes, at first glance, a play about a dying child may see morbid. The reader and theatregoer quickly realize, however, that Amal, the moribund boy, simply wants to experience the world through they eyes of a common dairyman and receive a letter from the king. He appreciates the small things in life and wants to live his life to the fullest, without pity or decadence. The thought of death barely enters his mind. It is, then, without coincidence, that the play was aired over the radio during Europe's darkest hours under Nazi occupation in World War II. The most poignant performance of the play was in July 1942, in the Warsaw Ghetto, when the Polish doctor, educator, writer, and children's rights activist Janusz Korczak had the children in his orphanage stage this play. As with the central character, Amal, the children were better able to accept death as part of life, preparing for certain death that awaited them. For in accepting death one can affirm life.