R. K. Narayan (born 1906) is one of the best-known of the Indo-English writers. He created the imaginary town of Malgudi, where realistic characters in a typically Indian setting lived amid unpredicta...
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In the following review, Fremantle calls Narayan's Grateful to Life and Death "a tour de force, as perfect as it is pure."
Mr. Narayan's first novel, The Financial Expert, ...
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Desai is the author of such books as Clear Light of Day. In the following review, she presents an overview of the setting and characters found in Narayan's Malgudi Days.
When R. K. Narayan was ...
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In the following essay, Ahluwalia discusses how Narayan's awareness of his audience influences his writing.
R. K. Narayan is one of those creative writers who make a living out of their writing...
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In the following essay, Amur traces Narayan's use of the symbols of the lotus pond, the garden, and the ruined temple in The English Teacher, The Financial Expert, and The Vendor of Sweets.
An ...
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In the following interview, Narayan discusses Indian writers, India, and criticism of his work.
[Graubard:] What can one say, in brief compass, about Indian literature? How do you see it?
[Narayan:] T...
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In the following essay, Pousse delineates how Narayan "separated the obviously ephemeral implications of [Gandhi's philosophy from what was eternal in it and he gave literary existence t...
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In the following review, Barr lauds Narayan's The Printer of Malgudi for its comedy and subtlety.
The town of Malgudi, fermenting with dreams, is the setting R. K. Narayan has devised for his n...
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In the following essay, Hubel explores the changing role of the devadasis caste in India by tracing Narayan's portrayal of them through the character of Rangi.
In 1947, after over 50 years of a...
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In the following essay, Urstad discusses Narayan's juxtaposition of modern life and Hindu mythology in the short story "Naga."
R. K. Narayan is generally acknowledged as the most ...
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Tharoor is the author of The Great Indian Novel and Show Business. In the following review, he praises the stories in Narayan's The Grandmother's Tale as "interesting and often pl...
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In the following excerpt, Mantel discusses the inhabitants of Narayan's The Grandmother's Tale and Selected Stories and how the author presents them with humor.
Some years ago, in an ess...
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Rama Rau is the author of Remember the House and other books about her native India. In the following review, she asserts that Narayan is like a revered village storyteller in his presentation of stor...
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In the following essay, Harrex analyzes Narayan's use of comedy in The Printer of Malgudi.
The Printer of Malgudi was first published as Mr. Sampath in 1949. It is not the most accomplished of ...
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In the following review, Millar discusses the character studies in the stories of Narayan's A Horse and Two Goats.
Mother India has many gentle children. This book [A Horse and Two Goats] is wr...
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Goyal was a book reviewer for the Hindustan Times and has published several books analyzing literature. In the following essay, he traces the metamorphosis of the main character, Raja, in Narayan�...
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In the following essay, Sah asserts that the central theme of Gateman's Gift is Govind Singh's role as a socio-economic animal.
What is the central theme of R. K. Narayan's story ...
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In the following essay, Srinath asserts the importance of the fictional Malgudi in Narayan's fiction.
R. K. Narayan's Malgudi has not changed much since 1935 when he wrote his first nove...
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Critical Essay by William Walsh
It is odd at a time when we are beginning to pay attention to Commonwealth writers that a writer of the character and maturity of R. K. Narayan should hardly have been ...
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Critical Essay by V. S. Naipaul
"India will go on." This was what the Indian novelist R. K. Narayan said to me in London in 1961, before I had ever been to India. (p. 10)
[Narayan'...
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Critical Essay by George Woodcock
[As] a South Indian [R. K. Narayan] knew he must come to terms with the power which in his novels he shows shaping Malgudi physically, giving it the plan of streets c...
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Critical Essay by Peter Green
Rasipuran Krishnaswami Narayan embodies in his career and writing all the necessary ambiguities of an Indian novelist who came to maturity under the British Raj…. ...
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Critical Essay by V. S. Naipaul
The virtues of R. K. Narayan are Indian failings magically transmuted. I say this without disrespect: he is a writer whose work I admire and enjoy. He seems forever hea...
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Critical Essay by Perry D. Westbrook
The first of R. K. Narayan's three volumes of short stories, An Astrologer's Day and Other Stories (1947), contains thirty pieces, all of which had p...
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Critical Essay by Harish Raizada
While summing up R. K. Narayan's characteristics as an author, the first thing that strikes us most is the dispassionate manner in which he judges the Indian li...
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Critical Essay by Joyce Carol Oates
R. K. Narayan is considered one of the finest of contemporary Indian writers. He is the author of The Guide and The Vendor of Sweets, novels about a mythical town c...
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Critical Essay by Laurence Lafore
[The stories in R. K. Narayan's "A Horse and Two Goats"] are all very specifically Indian, richly adorned with picturesque native customs and viv...
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Critical Essay by Lakshmi Holmstrom
Narayan is a comic novelist. His attitude to comedy grows out of a whole view of man's condition in the universe, and therefore the criticism of society and ...
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Critical Essay by John Updike
The autobiography of a writer of fiction is generally superfluous, since he has already, in rearrangement and disguise, written out the material of his life many times. A...
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Critical Essay by M. M. Mahood
'It's the original violence which has started a cycle—violence which goes on in undying waves once started, either in retaliation or as an original ...
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In this review of Gods, Demons, and Others, Kauffmann discusses the characteristics of the mythological tales that form the basis of the stories in this collection.
The most admirable Publisher'...
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In this essay, Jeurkar explores the three narrator-types found in Narayan's fiction: the "Talkative Man," the third-person narrator, and the omniscient narrator.
Among the Indo-En...
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In this essay, Kapadia examines the sources and qualities of Narayan's literary voice.
Among writers writing in English anywhere, R.K. Narayan has a distinctive voice. A lively storyteller, he ...
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In this review of The Grandmother's Tale, Tharoor claims that the simple and straightforward style that gives Narayan's stories their charm also weakens the overall effect due to inadequ...
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In the following essay, Urstad describes Narayan's literary technique of juxtaposing modern life with elements of myth. Urstad sees "Naga" as representative of this technique and ...
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This review of The Grandmother's Tale highlights the subtlety, elegance, gentleness, and profundity of Narayan's work.
There is a saying in India, "May you always wear red,"...
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This review of The Grandmother's Tale discusses Narayan's delicate treatment of his characters.
R. K. Narayan is a writer of towering achievement who has cultivated and preserved the lig...
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In this seminal essay, Westbrook focuses on the human quality of the short stories in Narayan 's first two published collections.
The first of R. K. Narayan's three volumes of short stor...
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Below, Lafore argues that the unifying theme of Narayan's stories is the failure of people to communicate with one another.
This is a collection of short stories, the first to be published in t...
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In the following essay, the authors review Narayan's short stories, first by collection, then by character type.
R. K. Narayan, one of the most famous Indo-Anglian writers, author of Mr. Sampat...
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In this essay, the authors describe Narayan's purely artistic approach to his writing, and compare his style to that of other Indian authors writing in English.
Almost every Indo-Anglian writer...
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In this essay, Rao describes Narayan as somewhat of an anomaly in Indian literature: an author at peace with himself, his society and his God. He further argues that this inner peace gives Narayan the...
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This essay examines the general characteristics of Narayan's fiction, including his realistic rendering of day-today life, the importance of family relationships, and the role of the caste syst...
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In this essay, Naik criticizes the lack of tragic irony and imagination in Narayan's short stories, but finds that his tight form and structure result in a well-constructed story.
The short sto...
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The Guide by R.K.Naravan: A Critical Appreciation
The Guide portrays the journey of a man through a maze of illusions in order to achieve reality. It is how Raju converts from a tourist guide to a gu...
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R. K. Narayan
