Four Chapters

Passion and politics intertwine in Char Adhyay (1934), Rabindranath Tagore's last and perhaps most controversial novel, set in the context of the freedom struggle in pre-Independent India.

Ela, a young working woman, comes under the spell of Indranath, a charismatic political activist who advocates the path of terror. She joins his band of underground rebels, vowing never to marry, and to devote her life to the nation's cause. But through her relationship with Atindra, a poet and romantic who grows disenchanted after joining the group, Ela realizes the hollowness of Indranath's machinations. The lovers now face a terrible choice.

This new translation of Char Adhyay brings Tagore's text to life in contemporary idiom, while evoking the charged atmosphere of the story's historical setting.

Rabindranath Tagore, Renaissance man, reshaped Bengal's literature and music, and became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. He introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and was a living institution for India, especially for Bengal.

Radha Chakravarty is a writer, critic, and translator. In 2004, she was nominated for the Crossword Translation Award for In the Name of the Mother by Mahasweta Devi.