Binodini

Translated from Chokher Bali, originally published in Bengali in 1902, this is one of Tagore’s most remarkable novels. It has the distinction of being the first truly modern novel of India. Tagore wrote several other novels which are better known. But in no other novel of his is he a better storyteller. In no other novel has he watched the human drama with such gentle and calm irony. In no other novel he accepted the kinship between love and sex with such frank sympathy – the white lotus of love rooted in the slime of desire. Of all women characters created by Tagore in his many novels, Binodini is the most real, convincing and full-blooded.