A Madhaviah (11 results)

Condition: New. pp. 312.

Condition: New. pp. 312.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Undated. Thick 12mo. in blue cloth binding. B&W illustrations, map. Condition: some wear & spotting to binding; top of spine nicked & slightly frayed; corners bumped; pages toned; else good. 290 pages.

Condition: New. pp. 312.

Condition: New.

Condition: New.

Condition: New.

Condition: New.

Condition: New.

Condition: New.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. First Revised Edition. Two separate works bound together as one, retaining the original wrappers. Fifteen stories to the first part, twelve stories to the second part. ***Very good in pale grey-blue decorative card boards with red cloth spine and blue clothed corners. Peach coloured wrappers to the first part, and grey coloured wrappers to the second part respectively. Light vertical crease to front and rear boards. Corners of boards very slightly bumped and rubbed. Edges of boards slightly rubbed and faded. Head and tail of spine very slightly rubbed. Contemporaneous owner's name in thick pencil: Gafors? to top of front free endpaper. Spine tight. Pages clean. No dustwrapper. ***178mm x 126mm. A list of A. Madhaviah's works in English and in Tamil to the recto of eachof the two front wrappers, and a page of quotes from the press to the recto of each of the two title-pages. First part is 144 pages, second part is 128 pages. ***'The late Mr. S. Kasturirangen Iyengar, editor of the Hindu wrote in the prefaces to the first edition: "They contain graphic and amusing pictures of what obtains more or less generally in Brahman house-holds in Southern India, and after marriage in, Hindu families is in the nature of a strong searchlight which should help to remove many of the flaws with which our social systems abounds. ---The enlightened conscience of the community has to be awakened to a sense of its duties, and it may be hoped that the stories in this book would succeed to an appreciable extent in doing so. --- They give a presentment of the higher castes in Southern India, and the pictures of life which are drawn are vivid, interesting, and written in the attractive style characteristic of the author. The stories illustrate what an eminent Indian Educationalist observed many years ago that the educated India leads generally a double life in its social aspect." (Quote from the reviews to the first edition to the fore of the book). ***The novel as a literary genre arrived in Tamil in the third quarter of nineteenth century, more than a century after it became popular with English writers. It was perhaps facilitated by the provision of education in English to sections of Indians since 1835. A. Madhaviah was born on August 16, 1872 at Perunkulam in the then Tirunelveli district. He was educated in a Hindu school in Tirunelveli, and stayed at a boarding-house in the nearby missionary town of Palayamkottai where he became acquainted with Christian missionaries and carried on when he joined the Madras Christian College for Higher Education. ***Madhaviah's writings include eight novels, four in English and four in Tamil, and many poems, essays and plays. His life-long campaign against child marriage and the ill-treatment of widows in the Brahmin community was much affected by the trauma he suffered surrounding the circumstances of the death of his sister, who, ten years older than him, gave birth at the age of sixteen to her first child. The novelists Samuel Vedanayakam Pillai, Rev. William Miller, who was the Principal of the Madras Christian College for thirty years, and the poet Subramanya Bharati influenced his writing. Novelists who used their work as reformist texts such as Madhaviah were the forerunners of K.S. Venkatramani, Pudumaippithan and many more over the next few decades. ***Only one copy of Kusika's Short Stories on Marriage Reform and Allied Topics is held at The British Library (COPAC). ***Printed on thin Indian paper in original contemporary thin fragile boards. Of interest to scholars and collectors of A. Madhaviah and rare Tamil and Indian early twentieth century literary titles. ***Ultra-scarce. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…