Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan, 1906-2001, Indo-English novelist; contributed articles.

R. K. Narayan (1906—2001) witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of uncommon warmth and vibrancy. Swami and Friends introduces us to Narayan’s beloved fictional town of Malgudi, where ten-year-old Swaminathan’s excitement about his country’s initial stirrings for independence competes with his ardor for cricket and all other things British. Written during British rule, this novel brings colonial India into intimate focus through the narrative gifts of this master of literary realism.

Four gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan's centennial Introducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India "the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story." Composed of powerful, magical portraits of all kinds of people, and comprising stories written over almost forty years, Malgudi Days presents Narayan's imaginary city in full color, revealing the essence of India and of human experience. This edition includes an introduction by Pulitzer Prize- winning author Jhumpa Lahiri. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

R.K. Narayan is a writer whose stories have enamoured my soul whether it was the rendition of stories on the audio visual medium or the books that filled my hands and mind with treasures of common and mystical. These stories are created in the simple yet magical world of Malgudi which has a wealth of peculiar characters straight out of a town or village in India; these common folk and their idiosyncrasies amuse and connect us with them in an incomprehensible way. We can analyse ourselves and our imperfections through reading their stories. These stories are a mirror to human frailties, thus, inspiring us to live rather than always trying to become better version of ourselves. Ambition, glamour, development, technology, competition, to grow big and do big is what has never touched Narayan stories…his characters live unperturbed in simple villages, simply enjoying every morsel and every conversation that comes their way. Indian myths and folklore form the bedrock of his stories. Simply told yet holding didactic messages through symbolic connect to mythology and Vedic and Puranic texts. A Narayan story is a sneak peek into the unpretentious common folk and their life and ambitions; wish the writer was presenting another story to us where how social media and digitization affects the amusing world of Malgudi would have been a treat to read! This book is an endeavour from my side to write about the contribution of Narayan to Indian English Literature and attempting a commentary upon some of his remarkable works

R.K. Narayan’s reputation as one of the founding figures of Indian writing in English is re-examined in this comprehensive study of his fiction, which offers detailed readings of all his novels. Arguing against views that have seen Narayan as a chronicler of “authentic” Indianness, John Thieme locates his fiction in terms of its specific South Indian contexts and cultural geography and its non-Indian intertexts. The study also considers the effect that Narayan’s writing for overseas publication had on novels such as Swami and Friends, The Guide and The Man-Eater of Malgudi. Narayan’s imaginary small town of Malgudi has often been seen as a metonym for India. Thieme draws on recent thinking about the ways in which place and space are constructed to demonstrate that Malgudi is always a fractured and transitional site, an interface between older conceptions of Indianness and contemporary views that stress the ubiquitousness and inescapability of change in the face of modernity. The study also shows that Malgudi is seen from varying angles of vision and with shifting emphases at different points in Narayan’s career. As well as offering fresh insights into the influences that went into the making of Narayan’s fiction, this is the most wide-ranging and authoritative guide to his novels to have appeared to date. It provides a unique account of his development as a writer.

The pick of thirty years of essays from R.K. Narayan, India's greatest English language novelist. R.K. Narayan is perhaps better known as a novelist, but his essays are as delightful and enchanting as his stories and novels. 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. In the book, he tackles subjects such as weddings, mathematics, coffee, umbrellas, teachers, newspapers, architecture, monkeys, the caste system, lovers—all sorts of topics, simple and not so simple, which reveal the very essence of India.

The Present Book Contains A Varied Selection Of Essays Ventured Upon As Exercises In Critical Evaluation Of Texts That Are Relevant In The Existent Literary Context. These Essays Are Certainly Not A Random Pick For Each Of The Works Chosen For Analysis, Whatever Be The Genre Of Writing, Represents The Literature In English Produced By The Native Writers Of A Particular Country. The Two Major Literatures In English Are Indisputably Those Of England And America But There Are Many Other Countries Like Africa, Australia, India And Pakistan Whose Authors Chose To Write In English Because They Felt That English, Despite Being An Alien Language, Would Better Verbalize Their Creative Urge And Lend Itself To An Exploration Of The Immense Possibilities Therein. Most Of The Authors Taken Up For Study In This Book Are Those Who Belong To The Fraternity Of Indian English Writers, Namely Mulk Raj Anand, Shashi Deshpande, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Mahesh Dattani And Manju Kapur. Catering To A Revival Of Interest In The Partition Of India As A Theme In Fiction Are Two Essays Which Deal With The Issue. Other Write-Ups Are On Works (Some In Translation) By Native Writers Of Hitherto Marginalized Countries That Have Now Chosen To Aggressively Assert Themselves Through Their Respective Literatures.The Book, Comprehensive And Rich In Its Contents, Is Highly Informative And Would Prove An Asset To Those Interested In The Diverse Manifestations Of Literature In English. It Would Be Of Particular Appeal To Those Who Wish To Explore The Works Of Indian English Writers Of Repute.