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R K Narayan Biography |
Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan (October 10, 1906 - May 13, 2001) was an Indian novelist. His novels are characterised by Chekhovian simplicity and gentle humour. Characters in his novels tend to be very down-to-earth. His novels are all set in an imaginary place called Malgudi which is a typical South Indian town.
His writing career began with Swami and Friends. At first, he could not get the novel published. He then sent a draft to Graham Greene, who liked it so much that he arranged for its publication. Greene was to remain a close friend of his. After that, he published a continuous stream of novels, all set in Malgudi and each dealing with different characters in that fictional place. Autobiographical content forms a significant part of some of his novels, for example, The English Teacher.
Most of his novels deal with the humdrum of everyday life. In fact, his work has sometimes been criticised for being excessively simplistic and for sometimes being cliched.
List of his major works (in chronological order) :
Swami and Friends, 1935
Bachelor of Arts, 1937
The Dark Room, 1938
The English Teacher, 1945
An Astrologer's Day and Other Stories, 1947
Mr. Sampath - The Printer of Malgudi, 1949
The Financial Expert, 1952
Grateful to Life and Death, 1953
Waiting for the Mahatma, 1955
Lawley Road and Other Stories, 1956
The Guide, 1958, made into a Hindi movie by Dev Anand
Next Sunday : sketches and essays, 1960
The Man-Eater of Malgudi, 1961
My Dateless Diary, 1964
Gods, Demons, and Other Stories, 1965
The Vendor of Sweets, 1967
A Horse and two Goats, and Other stories, 1970
The Ramayana; a shortened modern prose version, 1972
My Days, 1974
The Painter of Signs, 1976
Reluctant Guru, 1974
The Mahabharata: a shortened modern prose version, 1978
The Emerald Route, 1980
Malgudi Days, 1982
A Tiger for Malgudi, 1983
Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories, 1985
The Talkative Man, 1986
A Story-Teller's World: Stories, Essays, Sketches, 1989
The World of Nagaraj, 1990 |
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