Novel
The Broken Nest
নষ্টনীড়
Rabindranath Tagore · 1901
Synopsis
A wealthy Brahmin of Calcutta, Bhupati devotes his life to the English-language newspaper he has founded and neglects his young wife, Charulata, who is bored among the servants. He entrusts his cousin Amal, a student he is housing, with the task of entertaining her through lessons. The two young people discover that they share the same taste for writing, and their intimacy, accepted by custom, gradually takes a passionate turn that the husband does not see.
Context
Tagore was thirty-nine when he wrote this short novel, first published as a serial in 1901, then reprinted in 1909 in a collection of stories and in 1926 in his works of fiction. His biographers have seen in it the memory of Kadambari Devi, wife of his elder brother Jyotirindranath, who shared his literary tastes and took her own life a few months after the poet's marriage. Satyajit Ray made Charulata from it in 1964, and its title was taken up for the French translation.
Who it is for
A short novel, about one hundred and thirty pages in translation, which can be read in a single sitting; the French title is that of Satyajit Ray's film.
Prizes and reception
Adapted for cinema by Satyajit Ray (Charulata, 1964), one of his most admired films, then by Agnidev Chatterjee in 2012, and several times for television.
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