Prince & Other Modern Fables

Fairy tales with a difference India’s greatest poet of modern times Nobel Prize-winning author Rabindranath Tagore was a philosopher a visionary and a storyteller par excellence. His short lyrical prose fables set in a generic fairyland or in everyday locales are philosophical excursions across magical landscapes that speak to the imaginative child in every reader. The pages of The Prince and Other Modern Fables are full of insightful little stories that reveal the simple truth about life. There is the story of a little boy who has lost his mother of a tribal girl who is mistaken for a fairy of a jester who watches a king fight his battles from the sidelines of a young man who tries to come to terms with his first heartache and of a modern-day prince who is trying to eke out a living in the unforgiving city. Asking questions that we usually don’t stop to ask ourselves and often coming up with answers that are surprising in their simplicity every story sparkles with insights on the human condition and remains etched in the mind long afterwards. Now available in a lucid and vibrant translation this classic collection is sure to enchant modern readers who might never have encountered it before. About the Author Born in 1861 Rabindranath Tagore was a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. He started writing at an early age and by the turn of the century had become a household name in Bengal as a poet a songwriter a playwright an essayist a short story writer and a novelist. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and his verse collection Gitanjali came to be known internationally. At about the same time he founded Visva-Bharati a university located in Santiniketan near Kolkata. Called the Great Sentinel of modern India by Mahatma Gandhi Tagore steered clear of active politics but is famous for returning his knighthood as a gesture of protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919. Tagore was a pioneering literary figure renowned for his ceaseless innovations in poetry prose drama music and painting which he took up late in life. His works include novels plays essays on religious social and literary topics some sixty collections of verse over a hundred short stories and more than 2500 songs including the national anthems of India and Bangladesh. Rabindranath Tagore died in 1941. His eminence as Indias greatest modern poet remains unchallenged to this day.