Additional information
by Troilokyonath Mukhopadhyay (Author), Arnab Bhattacharya (Author)
Troilokyonath Mukhopadhyay (1847-1919) is one of the foremost writers of fiction of nineteenth-century Bengal. He is a master of the genre of fantasy writing.Domoruchorit, posthumously published in 1923, is a book which contains seven tales that are suffused with hilarious narration, sparkling wit, and cutting-edge satire. The tales capture the adda spirit of nineteenth-century Bengal and caters a disinct old world charm. Each of the stories comes up with a vignette of nineteenth-century Bengal with its politics of swadeshi movement and the social reality comprising casteism, child marriage, premature widowhood, feudal tyranny, and colonial oppression. And in each of these stories Troilokyonath Mukhopadhyay blends facts and fiction so magically that some critics have preferred to call him the first magic realist author of Bengal, even if he wrote at a time when magic realism was not even remotely known anywhere in the world. The stories purvey the flavour of a long-lost community life and homosocial male bonding which was once a distinctive part of Bengali culture.
Author Biography
Troilokyonath Mukhopadhyay, Arnab Bhattacharya
Troilokyonath Mukhopadhyay (1847-1919) is one of the foremost writers of fiction of nineteenth century Bengal, and also a pioneer of business entrepreneurship of colonial India. He is very often called the prime mover of magic realism in Bengali literature when it was not even remotely known anywhere in the world. 'Konkaboti', published in 1892, was Troilokyonath's debut novel, which heralded his advent into Bengali literature. His stories and novels are replete with sparkling wit, hilarious and unexpected turn of events, and caustic social satire. Arnab Bhattacharya is an internationally acclaimed critic, author/editor, and translator. He has been a panelled book reviewer for 'The Telegraph' for fifteen years, and is a senior resource person of the diploma course in translation studies at Rabindra Bharati University and a guest lecturer at the Department of Comaparative Literature. His works of translation include 'Of Ghosts and Other Perils' and 'Konkaboti' have been published by Orient BlackSwan in 2013 and 2015, respectively. His edited volume 'The Politics and Reception of Rabindranath Tagore's Drama' (co-edited with Mala Renganathan) has been published by Routledge in 2015.
