Selected Short Stories

This collection offers a superb introduction to Rabindranath Tagore’s literary brilliance. Featuring a handpicked selection of his finest short stories, the book showcases Tagore’s profound understanding of human nature and societal issues. His lyrical prose and insightful narratives make each story a compelling read. Perfect for both new readers and devoted fans, this edition captures the essence of Tagore’s storytelling and is a valuable addition to any literary library.

“Error will not go away; logic and reason are slow to penetrate. We cling with both arms to false hopes, refusing to believe the weightiest proofs against it, embracing it with all our strength. In the end it escapes, ripping our veins and draining our heart’s blood; until, regaining consciousness, we rush to fall into snares of delusion again.” With these words Rabindranath Tagore ends his short story, “The Postmaster.” It is the tale of a postmaster in British India who takes in an orphaned village girl to do his housework for which he pays her with food. The thread of this story, like those running through all of Tagore’s tales, is the small quiet spaces of the heart, where no other human can see and which we ourselves may scarcely comprehend.Tagore’s Life Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861 in Calcutta, when India was part of the British Empire. He died in Calcutta in 1941. During those 80 years, he produced 90 short stories, books of poetry and numerous paintings. Tagore was the first Asian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, an honor he received in 1913.Tagore’s Short Stories Reading a short story by Tagore is a journey into life’s trials and complexities. In “Selected Short Stories,” translated from Tagore’s native Bengali by William Radice, 30 Tagore classics show his compassion and humanity for the lowly and forgotten. Tagore’s stories do not philosophize or scold. They remind the reader of the frailty and sadness of much of the human condition: A young woman and her family devastated by the debt of an unpaid dowry; a little boy disgraced for playing with his sister on a social holiday; a house servant who’s life is upended by a freak accident; the skeleton in a medical school that once belonged to a young woman with hopes and dreams of her own; an idealistic young man who dreams of changing the world only to look back on his unfulfilled life and cherish one truly meaningful night; an old man living a life of regret because of a terrible mistake. The tales are not hopeless or morbid. Rather, they remind the reader of our frail natures and of the importance and need for empathy and compassion for our fellow humans. Tagore’s tales do not discuss the grand and famous, but focus on seemingly insignificant people whose hopes and dreams, fears and regrets fill an entire world. His stories ask us to consider how our fellow humans must bear life's burdens-and to show them kindness as they do. Mesmerizing with his prose, sincere in his humanity, beautiful in his settings, Rabindranath Tagore’s short stories left us an artist’s appeal to understand the yearnings and dreams of the human heart.

Containing thirty very short stories, often only about six pages long, yet for all their brevity the author completely wraps you up in the world and the events.Set in and around the River Padma (near Calcutta) in the late 19th century, Tagore writes of the ordinary people: deaths and marriages, children, poverty, the rich, the mean, the avaricious... Plus a couple with a ghostly touch. It's an era where women are definitely second-class-citizens; especially if they fall ill, when their husbands may well seek another wife; where the Hindus live alongside a Moslem population and the English governors....and where the river is a constant backdrop with its luxury houseboats and its monsoon flooding.The collection includes a poem, 'Passing Time in the Rain' (from which I have taken title of this review) and a selection of letters written by Tagore. Also a comprehensive glossary of Hindu terms encountered, a family-tree of family and map of Padma River area.Masterly storytelling, enhanced by a superb translation.

Good

Great writing and translation, but page numbers are all off, and there are many numbers scattered throughout the text, as if referring to another page number that often doesn't exist.