A Pioneer of the Indo-Anglian literary naturalism, Mulk Raj Anand was the best known writer of the Indian fiction of the 1930s. He was the most prolific of his contemporaries and his literary credits include about twenty-five novels, a few collections of short stories and numerous non-fictional works. His life and work testify to his participation and achievement in a variety of fields-fiction, journalism, editorship, politics, social welfare and administration. Nevertheless, his most ambitious mode of expression has been fiction. The Indo-Anglian novel before Anand was yet to be fully developed. In point of form and technique, it was not abreast of modern development in English. Its range of subjects were limited and the naturalism of Zola and Dostoevsky were also still immature, but he went beyond the works of these writers and carried the tradition to heights and brought the form of the novel in line with the latest development in Indian writing in English today.
This book, Mulk Raj Anand: From Literary Naturalism to Hopeful Humanism deals with some of Anand’s major novels, including Untouchable and The Private Life of an Indian Prince. The selection of his novels in the book has been done keeping in mind social heredity or the evils of casteism, environment and his final pronouncement on mankind, his credo, which he wrote into his novels.
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