- Paperback: 180 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; New edition edition (December 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0099282283
- ISBN-13: 978-0099282280
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.3 x 19.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 141 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,546,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
This novel completes the informal trilogy which began with "Swami and Friends" and "The Bachelor of Arts," The protagonist, Krishna, is an English teacher at the same college he had attended as a student. Although Krishna has recently married, his wife Susila and their daughter live with his parents-in-law some miles away. The story opens with his immediate family deciding to join him in Malgudi. Krishna is initially frightened by his new state of affairs, but he soon finds that his love for both his wife and child grows deeper than he could have imagined.
"Mr. Narayan has repeatedly been compared with Chekhov. Ordinarily such comparisons are gratuitous and strained, but in this case there are such clear and insistent echoes that any careful reader will be aware of them. There is that sense of rightness which transcends mere structure. There is the inexplicable blending of tragedy and humor. Most of all, there is a brooding awareness of fate which makes the story seem not authored, but merely translated."--J.F. Muehl, "Saturday Review"
"[Narayan] does not deal in exemplary fates, and the Western novel's machinery of retribution is far too grandiose for him. . . . In Narayan's world, scores are not settled but dissolved, recycled, restated. 'Both of us will shed our forms soon and perhaps we could meet again, who knows? So goodbye for the present.' These are the concluding words for the novel "A Tiger for Malgudi," but they constitute a universal epilogue one could append to most of Narayan's fiction."--Russell Davies, "Times Literary Supplement"
"Mr. Narayan has repeatedly been compared with Chekhov. Ordinarily such comparisons are gratuitous and strained, but in this case there are such clear and insistent echoes that any careful reader will be aware of them. There is that sense of rightness which transcends mere structure. There is the inexplicable blending of tragedy and humor. Most of all, there is a brooding awareness of fate which makes the story seem not authored, but merely translated."--J.F. Muehl, "Saturday Review"
"[Narayan] does not deal in exemplary fates, and the Western novel's machinery of retribution is far too grandiose for him. . . . In Narayan's world, scores are not settled but dissolved, recycled, restated. 'Both of us will shed our forms soon and perhaps we could meet again, who knows? So goodbye for the present.' These are the concluding words for the novel "A Tiger for Malgudi," but they constitute a universal epilogue one could append to most of Narayan's fiction."--Russell Davies, "Times Literary Supplement"
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First Sentence
I was on the whole very pleased with my day-not many conflicts and worries, above all not too much self-criticism. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I was on the whole very pleased with my day-not many conflicts and worries, above all not too much self-criticism. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
trauma of departure of a loved one,
By Aniruddha G. Kulkarni "Ani Kulkarni" (Pune, India) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The English Teacher (Paperback)
This book is autobiographical. It depicts painful struggle of the protagonist to come to terms with passing away of his young, beloved wife.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Coping with loss,
By
This review is from: The English Teacher (Paperback)
Of the few novels by Narayan I've read (each of which are, I think, early ones) I thought this was by far the most accomplished. "The English Teacher" is a well-written, controlled and moving piece of work.It's the story of Krishnan, a teacher in the fictional Indian town of Malgudi, who sets up home with his wife and young daughter. A tragedy unfurls which exposes Krishnan to feelings of loss and isolation. Narayan explores how humans cope with the ensuing disorientation, and in the end (of course), it's the living rather than the dead who continue to suffer. A short, but worthwhile read.
4.0 out of 5 stars
His best work...,
By "sirlancelotdulake" (India) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The English Teacher (Paperback)
This one's my favourite Narayan - along with the Maneater of Malgudi, this occupies a very special place in my book-shelf. The English Teacher - a.k.a. Grateful to Life and Death - is a sad story, sadder than most of Narayan's Malgudi novels. But the tragedy is softened by the wry humour that runs through the novel.'The feeling,' Narayan writes on the first page, 'again and again came upon me that as I was nearing thirty I should cease to live like a cow (perhaps, a cow, with justice, might feel hurt at the comparison), eating, working in a manner of speaking, walking, talking, etc, - all done to perfection, I was sure, but always leaving a sense of something missing.' You can see what I'm talking about. The story, as Narayan narrates in his autobiography 'My Days', is intensely personal. 'That book,' he writes, 'falls in two parts - one is domestic life and the other half is "spiritual."' The second half comes as a bit of a surprise, but Narayan tackles the difficult subjects of death, deprivation and desolation masterfully. Narayan takes you through the story gently. There are no shocks, nothing disturbing. This is a sad tale, gently told. The book ends on a note of hope - 'it was a moment of rare, immutable joy - a moment for which one feels grateful to Life and Death.' The reviewer who spoke of how Narayan manages to 'communicate ... the extra-ordinary ordinariness of human happiness', I think hit the nail right on the head.
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