Nirmala by Premchand


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ProductID: 2267 - Hardcover - 215 Pages (Year: 1999)
Oxford University Press ~ ISBN: 0195645804

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Indiaclub.com Description

First published in 1928, this poignant novel by Premchand is a classic text of the woman as victim.

Young and vulnerable, Nirmala is married off to an elderly widower by her mother who cannot afford to pay a dowry for her. A forbidden relationship between the young bride and one of her three stepsons seems inevitable. But her jealous husband perceives the possibility of such a relationship long before Nirmala and her stepson do, and the two are tragically separated. As the young man dies in a renunciatory illness, Nirmala is agonized by her culpability in his death and further crises in the family.

Exploring sensitive, even dangerous terrain, it communicates a sense of tragedy rather than moral disapproval. When published, the novel was perceived as a progressive indictment of a corrupt patriarchal society. Decades later, the tale remains relevant to the lives of many Indian women.

Alok Rai's skilful translation, with a Foreword, a detailed Afterword and a Glossary, enables a new generation of readers to have an insight into the prehistory of 'feminist'thinking in India. The Afterword takes note of the special context of the novel, placing the melodrama in perspective and analyzing its powerful working.

About the Author

Premchand is a pioneering figure in Modern Hindi literature. One of the initiators of realism in Indian fiction, his reformist stories on the evils of contemporary society proved very popular in his time. Today, his novels and short stories dealing with the quotidian lives of everyday heroes have attained the status of classics. As the greatest Hindi and Urdu writer of pre-independence India, Premchand deserves to be much better known outside his regional milieu; this felicitous translation will enable many readers to appreciate him for themselves.

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