Author
| Novel
| Date
|
Emile Zola
| Germinal
| 1885
|
Life
of a young miner in France explores in harsh detail grim conditions of
miners’ lives. It ends on a note of despair: strike the hero leads
fails, his co-workers turn against him, and hopes are shattered.
|
Hardy
| Mayor of Casterbridge
| 1886
|
About
Michael Henchard, a successful grain merchant, who becomes the mayor of
the farming town of Casterbridge. He is an independent-minded man who
follows his own style in conducting business. He can also be both
unpredictably generous and cruel with his employees. Consequently, he is
no match for his manager and rival Donald Farfrae (runs his business on
efficient managerial lines, is smooth and even-tempered). We can see
that Hardy mourns the loss of the more personalized world that is
disappearing, even as he is aware of its problems and the advantages of
the new order.
Novels used vernacular (language of common man) –
created shared world within diverse population – combined classical
language with language of streets.
|
R.L. Stevenson
| Treasure Island
| 1883
|
Rudyard Kipling
| Jungle Book
| 1894
|
Powerful, assertive, independent and daring – full of adventure - heroic and honorable
|
G.A. Henty
| Drake’s Flag
| 1883
|
Historical
adventure novels for boys -excitement and adventure of conquering
strange lands. They were set in Mexico, Alexandria, Siberia and many
other countries. About young boys who witness grand historical events,
get involved in some military action and show what they called ‘English’
courage.
Two young Elizabethan adventurers face their apparently approaching death, but still remember to assert their Englishness
|
Helen Hunt Jackson
| Ramona
| 1884
|
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (pen name Susan Coolidge)
| What Katy Did
| 1872
|
Love stories in USA
|
Daniel Defoe
| Robinson Crusoe
| 1719
|
The
hero is an adventurer and slave trader. Shipwrecked on an island,
Crusoe treats colored people not as human beings equal to him, but as
inferior creatures. He rescues a ‘native’ and makes him his slave and
gives him the name “Friday” – this was unacceptable behavior as most
writers saw colonialism as natural
|
Baba Padmanji
| Yamuna Paryatan
| 1857
|
The earliest novel in Marathi was which used a simple style of storytelling to speak about the plight of widows.
|
Lakshman Moreshwar Halbe
| Muktamala
| 1861
|
It was not a realistic novel; it presented an imaginary ‘romance’ narrative with a moral purpose.
|
Naro Sadashiv Risbud
| Manjughosha
| 1868
|
Used a highly ornamental style in his Marathi novel filled with amazing events
|
O. Chandu Menon
| Indulekha
| 1889
|
A
subjudge from Malabar, tried to translate English novel called
Henrietta Temple written by Benjamin Disraeli into Malayalam – but
people in Kerala found their clothes, speaking etc. as boring. He wrote a
story in Malayalam in the ‘manner of English novel books’. This
delightful novel called Indulekha, was the first modern novel in
Malayalam.
|
Kandukuri Viresalingam(1848-1919)
| Rajasekhara Caritamu
| 1878
|
From
Andhra Pradesh began translating Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield
into Telugu. He abandoned this plan for similar reasons and instead
wrote an original Telugu novel called Rajasekhara Caritamu in 1878.
|
Srinivas Das
| Pariksha-Guru (Master Examiner)
| 1882
|
First
proper modern novel was written by Srinivas Das of Delhi. His novel
cautioned young men of well-to-do families against the dangerous
influences of bad company and consequent loose morals – reflect inner
and outer world of emerging middle class – adopt colonized society and
preserve cultural identity
Teach right way to live – take new
agricultural technology, modernize trading practice, change use of
Indian languages & transmit Western Sciences and Indian wisdom – all
this must be achieved without sacrificing the traditional values of the
middle-class household
|
Devaki Nandan Khatri
| Chandrakanta
| |
A
romance with dazzling elements of fantasy – is believed to have
contributed immensely in popularizing the Hindi language & Nagari
script among the educated classes of those times.
|
Premchand
| Sewasadan (The Abode of Service)
| 1916
|
Premchand
started in Urdu and then in Hindi – in art of kissa-goi
(story-telling). His novel lifted the Hindi novel from the realm of
fantasy, moralizing and simple entertainment to a serious reflection on
the lives of ordinary people and social issues – dealt with poor
conditions of women in society, child marriage and dowry
|
Rajanikanta Bardoloi
| Manomati
| 1900
|
He
wrote the first major historical novel in Assam. It is set in the
Burmese invasion, stories of which the author had probably heard from
old soldiers who had fought in the 1819 campaign. It is a tale of two
lovers belonging to two hostile families who are separated by the war
and finally reunited.
|
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
| Durgeshnandini
| 1865
|
He would host a jatra
in the courtyard where members of the family would be gathered. In
Bankim’s room, however, a group of literary friends would collect to
read, discuss and judge literary works. Bankim read out Durgeshnandini,
his first novel, to such a gathering of people who were stunned to
realize that the Bengali novel had achieved excellence so quickly.
Prose
style in novels, initially it was colloquial style and used meyeli
(language associated with women’s speech) – the style was replaced by
Bankim’s prose which was Sanskritized.
By 20th
century, power of telling stories in simple language made Sarat Chandra
Chattopadhyay (1876-1938) the most popular novelist in Bengal and
probably in the rest of India.
|
Rokeya Hossein (1880-1932)
| Sultana’s Dream
| 1905
|
Was a reformer who, after she was widowed, started a girl’s school in Calcutta. She wrote a satiric
(criticism of society in witty manner) fantasy in English which shows a
topsy-turvy world in which women take the place of men. Her novel Padmarag also showed the need for women to reform their condition by their own actions
|
Gulavadi Venkata Rao
| Indirabai
| 1899
|
The
heroine is given away in marriage at a very young age to an elderly
man. Her husband dies soon after, and she is forced to lead the life of a
widow. In spite of opposition from her family and society, Indirabai
succeeds in continuing her education
Central dilemma faced by
colonial subjects - how to be modern without rejecting tradition, how to
accept ideas coming from the West without losing one’s identity
|
Chandu Menon
| Indulekh
| |
A
love story. Nambuthiri, the foolish landlord who comes to marry
Indulekha, is the focus of much satire in the novel. The intelligent
heroine rejects him and chooses Madhavan, the educated and handsome
Nayar as her husband, and the young couple move to Madras, where
Madhavan joins the civil service.
Concerned the marriage
practices of upper-caste Hindus in Kerala, especially the Nambuthiri
Brahmins and the Nayars. Nambuthiris were also major landlords in Kerala
at that time; and a large section of the Nayars were their tenants.
Young generation of Nayars occupied property and wealth and argued
against Nambuthiri alliances with Nayar women.
Chandu Menon
portrayed Indulekha as a woman of breathtaking beauty, high intellectual
abilities, artistic talent, and with an education in English and
Sanskrit. Madhavan, the hero of the novel, was also presented in ideal
colours. He was a member of the newly English-educated class of Nayars
from the University of Madras. He was also a ‘first-rate Sanskrit
scholar’. He dressed in Western clothes. But, at the same time, he kept a
long tuft of hair, according to the Nayar custom.
|
Jane Austen
| Pride and Prejudice
| |
19th
century Britain - give us a glimpse of the world of women in genteel
rural society – look for good marriages and find wealthy husbands –
“single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”
|
Charlotte Bronte
| Jane Eyre
| 1847
|
Dealt with women who broke existing norms
Young
Jane is shown as independent and assertive. While girls of her time
were expected to be quiet and well behaved, Jane at the age of ten
protests against the hypocrisy of her elders with startling bluntness;
against her aunt and calls her deceitful
|
Ramashankar Ray
| Saudamani
| 1877-78
|
A dramatist, began serializing the first Oriya novel, Saudamani but could not complete it.
|
Fakir Mohon Senapati (1843-1918)
| Chaa Mana Atha Guntha
| 1902
|
Orissa
produced a major novelist. It translates as six acres and thirty-two
decimals of land. It announces a new kind of novel that will deal with
the question of land and its possession. It is the story of Ramchandra
Mangaraj, a landlord’s manager who cheats his idle and drunken master
and then eyes the plot of fertile land owned by Bhagia and Shariya, a
childless weaver couple.
|
Charles Dickens
| Hard Times
| 1854
|
Against
industrialization in his novel describes Coketown, a fictitious
industrial town, as a grim place full of machinery, smoking chimneys,
rivers polluted purple and buildings that all looked the same. Workers
are known as ‘hands’, as if they had no identity other than as operators
of machines. Humans were reduced to simple instruments.
|
Charles Dickens
| Oliver Twist
| 1838
|
Explained
terrible condition of urban life under capitalism - tale of a poor
orphan who lived in a world of petty criminals and beggars. Brought up
in a cruel workhouse, Oliver was finally adopted by a wealthy man and
lived happily ever after
|
Hannah Mullens
| Karuna o Phulmonir Bibaran
| 1852
|
A Christian missionary, reputedly the first novel in Bengali, tells her readers that she wrote in secret.
|
Advaita Malla Burman’s (1914-51)
| Titash Ekti Nadir Naam
| 1956
|
It
is an epic about Mallas, a community of fisherfolk who live off fishing
in river Titash. The novel is about three generations of the Mallas,
about their recurring tragedies and the story of Ananta, a child born of
parents who were tragically separated after their wedding night. He
leaves community to get educated in the city – as river dries the
community dies.
|
Potheri Kunjambu
| Saraswativijayam
| 1892
|
A
‘lower-caste’ writer from north Kerala mounted a strong attack on caste
oppression. This novel shows a young man from an ‘untouchable’ caste,
leaving his village to escape the cruelty of his Brahmin landlord. He
converts to Christianity and gets education. Explains education of
upliftment of lower castes.
|
Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer (1908-94)
| | |
Was
one of the early Muslim writers to gain wide renown as a novelist in
Malayalam. He didn’t had much formal education and most works were based
on rich personal experience. He took part in Salt Satyagarha and he
wrote short novels and stories. Brought in his writings – poverty,
insanity and life in prisons.
|
Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay (1827-94)
| Anguriya Binimoy
| 1857
|
Was
the first historical novel written in Bengal. Its hero Shivaji engages
in many battles against a clever and treacherous Aurangzeb. Man Singh
persuades Shivaji to make peace with Aurangzeb. Realizing that Aurangzeb
intended to confine him as a house prisoner, Shivaji escapes and
returns to battle. What gives him courage and tenacity is his belief
that he is a nationalist fighting for the freedom of Hindus.
|
Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai (1912-99),
| Chemmeen (Shrimp)
| 1956
|
It
is set in fishing community in Kerala, and characters speak a variety
of Malayalam used by fisherfolk in the region. The film Chemmeen,
directed by Ramu Kariat, was made in 1965.
|
Bankim
| Anandamath
| 1882
|
It
is a novel about a secret Hindu militia that fights Muslims to
establish a Hindu kingdom. It was a novel that inspired many kinds of
freedom fighters.
|
Premchand
| Rangbhoomi (The Arena)
| |
It
has characters that create a community based on democratic values.
Central character, Surdas, is a visually impaired beggar from a
so-called ‘untouchable’ caste. The very act of choosing such a person as
the ‘hero’ of a novel is significant. It makes the lives of the most
oppressed section of society as worthy of literary reflection.
His
novels are filled with all kinds of powerful characters drawn from all
levels of society. He rejected nostalgic obsession with history. His
novels look towards the future without forgetting the importance of the
past.
|
Premchand
| Godan (gift of Cow)
| 1936
|
It
is his best known work. It is an epic of the Indian peasantry. Novel
tells the moving story of Hori and his wife Dhania, a peasant couple.
Landlords, moneylenders, priests and colonial bureaucrats – all those
who hold power in society – form a network of oppression, rob their land
and make them into landless laborers. Yet Hori and Dhania retain their
dignity to the end.
|
Rabindranath Tagore
| Ghare Baire
| 1916
|
It
were historical and later based on domestic relationships and focused
on women and nationalism. Concerns are featured in his Ghare Baire
(1916) translated in 1919 as The Home and the World. The story is about
Bimala, wife of Nikhilesh, a liberal landlord who believes that he can
save his country by patiently bettering the lives of its poor and
marginal sections. But Bimala is attracted to Sandip, her husband’s
friend and a firebrand extremist. Sandip is so completely dedicated to
throwing out the British that he does not mind if the poor ‘low’ castes
suffer and Muslims are made to feel like outsiders. By becoming a part
of Sandip’s group, Bimala gets a sense of self-worth and self-esteem.
Bimala may be admired by the young males of the group but she cannot
influence their decisions. Indeed, she is used by Sandip to acquire
funds for the movement. Tagore’s novels make us rethink both man-woman
relationships and nationalism |