Customer Reviews

Selected Short Stories (Oxford Tagore Translations)

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Rabindranath Tagore is best known for his Bengali devotional songs, which were translated to English as poetry. His most famous book of poems, Gitanjali, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. However, Tagore also wrote short stories which reflect the people, customs, social structure, turmoil, and relationships of the times in which they were written. When the stories were written, Tagore lived on a houseboat. He watched the ebb and flow of life in villages along the river. He captured the essential features of Bengali village life. He saw the caste system, the inequality, the struggles and limitations imposed on people. He wrote about the realities he witnessed. He saw that women were treated as second class citizens, despite their intelligence and talents. He witnessed death as a part of life, when antibiotics had not yet been developed, infections killed children and adults alike. Orphans remained to be raised by next of kin. Tagore manages to capture teh feelings and emotions of the disenfranchised, the poor, and the helpless. His stories are often haunting and eery - the reader gets the feeling for where the stories are leading but suddenly an unexpected twist can change the outcomes. Whatever the theme or topic, Tagore maintains a spiritual awareness or presence in all his stories ... he is sensitive to the innocent, the vulnerable, the unprotected ones in society. His characters have unique personalities. He describes family relationships and explores prescribed roles and society's expectations. He also reveals what happens when people challenge their roles and fall outside behavioral norms. Although the stories were written in the 1890s, the message Tagore conveys has meaning in modern times.
Expressions of love, respect, and decency toward one's fellow human being are universal, therefore Tagore will be held in high esteem by future generations, just as he has been revered by past and present readers. The content of his stories are not bound by space or culture, they are spiritual and therefore timeless. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

Having the advantage of being a native from Bengal, I could relate to the tragedies expressed in the stories. The characters are highlighted by their uniqueness and yet so typical of the period, region culture and customs - all so brilliantly portrayed. I must point out the marvellous job done in translation. It is very difficult to keep intact the sense of each context when translating and it will never be possible to reflect the stories in its entirety in a translated form. Nevertheless, I felt this was as close as one could get. Tagore is undoubtedly a great poet but what amazes me is how he brings out the poet in anyone who reads his stories or poems. The appreciation does not end with reading his works but endures in your perceptions from then on.

These stories of Tagore's are hauntingly beautiful. One could almost call these stories a series of extended prose poems; the scenes of Bengali life are painted with full force. The situations are not very realistic, but the realism of emotion is all the more genuine because of it. The one complaint I have is that every single story turns out bad! There is not a single happy story in the book, which makes Tagore seem like so much of a pessimist. The stories are also not really stories in the western sense -- they are more properly called "tales", with a minimum of action and a sense of being "told" a story rather than experiencing it as it unfolds.

.... to the west an unknowable future.' This quote is not about Bengalis - it is about all of us (see 'Thakurda'). For those reviewers who disliked these stories I accept your right to have your view - but I would, if I had one wish granted in which I could influence you, have you read them again with a more open heart, more perceptive eyes. ('Thukurda would be a good story to start with - it is one of the more positive ones, or 'Kabuliwalah'.)

These stories are about Bengalis - people who are different to the majority of Tagore's readers - and poor people too. But Tagore's way of blending these people with the country they live in and the circumstances of their lives - grim though they might be - gives them a real place in my heart and thoughts (and I do recognise that modern Bengalis might be quite different from Tagore's Bengalis - even so, I feel greatly enriched).

My only 'criticism' of Tagore is not something he could do anything about - he was the wealthy amongst the poor, so many poor that even had he given all his wealth away he would have made no dent in the majority of these people's lives. But what he did not do was shut his eyes to their circumstances, blind himself to them in the way all meat eaters blind themselves to what goes on in an abbatoir. And perhaps, by keeping his eyes open, Tagore was able to exercise his influence over these people in a more understanding and supportive way.

By chance I was reading these stories on a trip to Fiji with my family (I read 'Thakurda' to all of them because it is such a beautiful story). When I had finished the stories I was looking for something else to read and, by chance, came across a second-hand copy of 'Afoot in England' by W H Hudson, one of my favourite writers (how this got to be on sale in Levuka is a great mystery - but one I greatly appreciated). Hudson, in this book, does not write short stories - he narrates incidents and some of the historic background behind them. Like Tagore, place (and in Hudson's case, especially birds) are integral to all the tales he tells. The other big difference with Hudson is that he is a peasant amongst peasants. I find this enchanting in a way that Tagore can sometimes seem to me to be a bit distant.

Other recommended reading:

'Home and the World' - Rabindranath Tagore
'Afoot in England' - W H Hudson
'Idle Days in Patagonia' - W H Hudson
'Wanderings in South America' - Charles Waterton (for something a bit different!)

Rabindranath Tagore is the author of over ninety short stories. The thirty stories in this collection are from the 1890s. He deals with themes of loneliness, death, illness, abusive marriages, family life, jealousy, suicide, revenge, beauty and war.

I'm not really a fan of novels or short stories but these stories seemed exotic enough to hold my attention. As I read through the book I decided to only read the stories that garnered my attention on the first page. My favorite stories include:

"The Living and The Dead" - A story filled with suspense. This story has a very unexpected ending. A woman is found dead but she is revived and must convince her relatives that she is not a ghost.

"Profit and Loss" - This story presents the harsh realities of arranged marriages.

"False Hope" - A fantasy story in the mist with a touch of sarcasm.

"Fury Appeased" - A story with a nice twist at the end. In this story a woman who is scorned gets her revenge in a very creative way.

A glossary at the end of the book helps to define Indian words used in the stories and letters. There are also about 24 pages of letters written by Tagore. For the most part the stories transport the reader to another time and place and this is what makes them so enjoyable. Once I was entranced by a story I was always delighted by the creative conclusion.

~The Rebecca Review

The book took too long and did not get its use. It was suppose to be for a class and never got it in time.

I have no clue why Rabindranath Tagore was regarded as the greatest poet of India -- I DO know why he has been justly forgotten! Just read this book! I couldnt even get through all of the stories. It was just the same thing over and over again. One sob story after another. none of the characters spoke or acted realistically and all of the stories were unhappy tear-jerkers. Why someone who writes such maudlin junk is regarded as a great writer I just do not understand. Chitra Banerjeee Divakaruni writes more realistically than this and she's just a hack too! Saveyour money and read something from a decent modern Parsee writer like Mistry or Umrigar.

if possible. This is just a collection of mushy, sentimentalist garbage ... and if you are not Indian (or Bengali), please ... dont buy this thinking it will give you any accurate idea of Indian life and society at any given point in time. I have never understood why Tagore has such a reputation as a writer of novels and short stories ... stick to his music and art (which ARE terrific) and avoid this stuff at all costs.