In the course of a brief life punctuated by painful illness, Toru Dutt generated an impressive body of work in the confines of her father's two houses in Bengal, India (a British colony at the time), the most notable of which are A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876), a translation of French verse into English, and the posthumously published Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (1882), a translation of Sanskrit verse into English. Dutt also wrote essays for The Bengal Magazine and had two novels published posthumously: "Bianca, or The Young Spanish Maiden" (1878) and Le Journal de Mademoiselle d'Arvers (1879), the former of which is incomplete and was published in The Bengal Magazine.

Why the Indian-born Dutt was so prolific in English, French, and, to a lesser extent, Sanskrit, was no doubt owing to her extraordinary family background and upbringing. Dutt was born on 4 March 1856 to Govin Chunder Dutt and...