The Saratchandra Omnibus: Volume 1

Saratchandra Chattopadhyay is widely acknowledged as
one of the greatest Indian novelists of the twentieth century. His novesl,
serialized in periodieals and subsequently published in book form, earned
Saratchandra immense fame in the early decades of the century, and the
established him as Bengal's master storyteller. Even today, seven decades after
his death. Saratchandra remains one of the most popular novelists in Bengal, and
is widely read in translation across India as well.This collector's edition
of Saratchandra's works in English translation brings together the writer's most
renowned and best-loved novels in two omnibus volumes. The first volume features
five novels: Srikanta, Devdas, Parineeta, Palli Samaj and Nishkriti.
Srikanta is the story of a wanderer who observes the people around him;
through them-especially the women he loves and respects, from the sacrificing
Annada Didi and the rebellious Abhaya to the housewife Rajlakshmi and the
courtesan Pyari Bai-he tries to arrive at an understanding of life. Devdas,
on the other hand, is the tragic tale of a man who drives himself to drink and
debilitation when he is unable to marry his childhood sweetheart Paro. In Parineeta
(Expoused), the orphaned Lalita is secretly in love with her guardian
Shekhar, but circumstances conspire to drive the two apart. Palli Samaj (The
Village Life) has Ramesh, an engineer, returning to the village of his birth to
try and rid it of the backwardness that plagues it, even as he tries to revive
his childhood ties with Rama, now a widow. In Nishkriti (Deliverance),
the strong-willed Shailaja, the youngest daughter-in-law in a joint family, is
made an outcast as a result of a misunderstanding; much later, her elders
realize their mistake, just&n