As the Ganga Flows: A translation of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's novella Chandranath

An educated, wealthy young man falls in love and marries a poor, beautiful girl. A blackmailer destroys their happy lives. The homeless, pregnant young woman contemplates suicide. A chess-obsessed, poor widower shows unexpected human dignity; he gives her shelter and raises her son as a foster grandchild. The husband returns, and all is well. Yet, the story ends in a haunting final chapter where obsession, love, loneliness, and despair tangle together. Fairy tale meets life.As the Ganga Flows: A translation of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s novella Chandranath shows why Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (Chatterjee) is a master storyteller with a flair for probing the human psyche.Distinguished linguist, translator, and a member of the elite Indian Civil Service, James Drummond Anderson wrote about Sarat Chandra (“A New Bengali Writer,” The Times Literary Supplement, 11 July 1918):"His knowledge of the ways and thoughts and language of women and children, his power of transferring these vividly to the printed page, are such as are rare indeed in any country. … Mr. Chatterjee is much too true an artist to allow his gift of kindly yet scrupulously accurate observation to be distracted by social or political prejudice. … It is of excellent omen that Mr. Chatterjee's art has received such instant and wide appreciation in his own country. Let us hope that in other Indian provinces there are rising authors as keenly observant and gifted with a like faculty of easy and natural expression."Anderson’s assessments of Sarat Chandra were prophetic. “He remains the most popular, translated, and adapted Indian author of all time” (Wikipedia).This elegant translation is a page-turner. Detailed endnotes would help readers unfamiliar with the story’s setting in the 19th-century Indian Hindu Society. The book features a “mini art exhibition” – photos of Indian paintings by famous British and Indian artists, which suit the mood and subject. Read more