Timeless Tales From Bengal: An Anthology of Bangla Children’s and Young Adults’ Stories

Buddhadeva Bose, the noted Bengali littérateur, once observed that the greatest treasure of Bangla literature is its children’s and young adults’ literature. The achievements of stalwarts as various as Rabindranath Tagore, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay,Sukumar Ray, Manik Bandyopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, Narayan Gangopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Satyajit Ray and many others in this realm enable it to match similar traditions existing anywhere in the world. Their best works also remind us that a good piece for children is also a charming one for the adult. Their efforts have made Bangla children’s literature a treasure trove that can enamour any child—or anybody—who loves to read. This unique anthology of thirty-four translated stories invites the reader to a feast that offers on the platter most of the sub-genres in the realm: from fantasy, folk tales and animal stories through comic tales, detective fiction and adventure and suspense stories to ghost stories, historical narratives, sports narratives and tales of social consciousness. Enriched with beautiful illustrations, bionotes of the authors, a glossary and an informed Introduction, the book would also be eminently useful to enthusiastic researchers. Between its covers, the volume presents an enjoyable and fairly comprehensive picture of Bangla children’s and young-adults’ short fiction to the non-Bengali readership for the first time in publishing history.

Dipankar Roy

Dipankar Roy teaches at the Department of English, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. His doctoral dissertation, In Tagore’s Own Country, was published in 2015. His essays on subjects ranging from Bengal Renaissance to Rudyard Kipling’s Kim have come out in reputed national/ international journals and books. He was awarded the Isaac Sequeira Memorial Award for his article on Amitav Ghosh.

Saurav Dasthakur

Saurav Dasthakur is Assistant Professor of English at Visva-Bharati. His areas of research include Modernist Literature, Children’s Literature, Culture Studies and Translation. He has published academic articles in books and journals of national and international repute, including the Journal of Asian Studies, and co-guest-edited a special issue of Sangeet Natak, the journal of Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, on Rabindranath Tagore.