Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man [Hardcover]

Krishna Dutta (Author), Andrew Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1995

Drawing on previously unpublished material, a new biography of the Nobel laureate poet Tagore, the first in thirty years, captures the brilliant essence of his spiritual and political message, a message that is again attracting worldwide attention.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This moving, essential biography of one of the century's great artists profiles an individualist who brought East and West into receptive emotional and intellectual contact. Bengali poet, novelist, essayist and playwright Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, believed India was uniquely capable of synthesizing Eastern spirituality with Western practicality. Tagore helped to lead India's first modern patriotic movement, in 1905-1907, and the institute for rural reconstruction, which he founded in 1921, anticipated Gandhi's efforts. Demythologizing yet sympathetic, this biography explores Tagore's many contradictions. Internationalist yet elitist, he was an aristocrat by training and temperament and clashed frequently with Gandhi's nationalist movement. Although he condemned child marriage and supported women's rights in his writings, Tagore in his personal life craved women's unswerving devotion, and he married off his two older daughters at the ages of 10 and 14. The authors examine Tagore's protean creativity, including his songs, operas, dance-dramas and paintings; they also interweave wonderful new translations of numerous poems. Dutta is translator of Tagore's Selected Short Stories; Robinson is the author of The Art of Rabindranath Tagore. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

India's greatest modern poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) tried throughout his life to bridge the Eastern and Western worlds that were his dual patrimony. Lionized in the West after winning the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913, he was treated as the personification of Eastern wisdom. In this compelling biography, Dutta, a teacher in London, and Robinson, an editor, succeed admirably in delineating the complexity of a creative genius who embodied the ambivalence of modern India toward the British raj. An eloquent advocate of Indian self-rule, Tagore was a loner who eschewed politics and criticized his compatriots as harshly as he did the British. Enriched with numerous brief excerpts from Tagore's writing, this balanced and authoritative biography deserves a broad readership.?Steven I. Levine, Boulder Run Research, Hillsborough, N.C.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 493 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (December 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312140304
• ISBN-13: 978-0312140304
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,471,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars East/West: Gandhi/Tagore, January 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man (Hardcover)

Worth seeking out, warranting reprinting, this is a dense, substantial, but readible biography, less concerned with literary criticism than with the psychological dynamics and political realities of Tagore's creative life. Ultimately, it is about East and West, which is to say, about Tagore the globalist who sought integration of east and west, as contrasted with Gandhi, the nationalist. Tagore believed that the human condition was first of all cultural, Gandhi regarded it as first of all political. This is a comprehensive but penetrating study not only of Tagore, but of modern India.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Captivating ..., July 8, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man (Hardcover)

One day I was visiting my friend, and he gave me this book to read. I always knew Tagore from my childhood, but this relevation was too captivating... I still wish I have the book wherever I see myriad flowers .... A must for a Tagore Fan.