Poet, novelist, painter and musician, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is
the grand master of Bengali culture. Written during the 1890s, the stories
in this selection brilliantly recreate vivid images of Bengali life and
landscapes in their depiction of peasantry and gentry, casteism, corrupt
officialdom and dehumanizing poverty. Yet Tagore is first and foremost
India's supreme Romantic poet, and in these stories he can be seen reaching
beyond mere documentary realism towards his own profoundly original vision.