An Unfinished Song

Bengal has been the nursery of great men and women. It gave to India many distinguished sons and daughters during the past two centuries- Rabindra Nath Tagore and Subhash Chandra Bose belong to that galaxy. The author of this most interesting novel is Mrs. Ghosal or Shrimati Svarna Kumari Devi, daughter of Maharishi Devendra Nath Tagore, the religious reformer and founder of Brahmo Samaj. She had three illustrious brothers- Rabindra Nath Tagore the Nobel laureate; Dwejendra Nath, equally distinguished man of letters; and Satyendra Nath, who after his return from England, became a great social reformer. Her son became an ICS. The present novel was written by the author when she was hardly twenty and still a maiden and when it appeared it created great sensation in the literary world. It became an immediate success. That and Indian woman had attempted such a feat caused all the more sensation. She has displayed a consummate skill as a novelist in weaving a powerful plot round a girl of five and a boy of ten who were class fellows. They hardly stayed together in the school for two years. The interest in the story reaches its climax when the boy returns from England after having qualified as a doctor and she an accomplished literary and social figure of top circles in Calcutta. the story of the novel takes many ups and downs and when it first appeared eighty year ago, it received amazing popularity. The novel is indeed a literary novel and should be the proud possession of libraries and all literary men and women to whom it is likely to prove of immense interest.