Novel
An Unfinished Song
কাহাকে
Swarnakumari Devi · 1898
Synopsis
Moni, the younger of the two motherless daughters of Mr Majumdar, grows up in an educated Bengali family and tells her own story. As a child, she sang with her friend Chotu a song whose thread she loses when he leaves to study far away. A lettered young woman and musician, she falls for Romanath, whose contempt for women she gradually discerns, then for another, while her father thinks of marrying her to a friend of the family; she seeks to understand her own heart.
Context
The novel appeared in Bengali in 1898 under the title Kahake, “To whom?”. The author translated it into English herself: An Unfinished Song appeared in December 1913, was translated a second time the same year and reissued as early as October 1914; the English press hailed it as a picture of Hindu life. It is set among the families of the reformed party of Bengal, partly won over to Western ways, and four characters discuss the novels of George Eliot. Oxford University Press has reissued it with an introduction by Vijayasree Chaganti.
Who it is for
A love novel in the first person, nourished by conversations about literature and music. No French translation; accessible in the author's own English version.
Prizes and reception
Perhaps its author's best book, and one of the first novels by an Indian woman translated into English.
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