''Alaler Gharer Dulal'' (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: ''আলালের ঘরের দুলাল''; published in 1857) is a

novel by

Peary Chand Mitra Peary Chand Mitra (22 July 1814 – 23 November 1883) was an Indian writer, journalist, cultural activist and entrepreneur. His pseudonym was Tek Chand Thakur. He was a member of Henry Derozio's Young Bengal group, who played a leading role ...

(1814–1883). The writer used the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

''Tekchand Thakur'' for this novel. The novel describes the society of the nineteenth century Calcutta (also known as

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

), and the bohemian lifestyle of the protagonist named Matilal. The novel is a landmark in the history of Bengali language and

Bengali literature Bengali literature ( bn, বাংলা সাহিত্য, Bangla Sahityô) denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle- Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time ...

, as it used '' Cholitobhasa'' (colloquial form of the Bengali language) for the first time in print. The novel also happens to be one of the earliest Bengali novels.

Hana Catherine Mullens Hana Catherine Mullens (1826–1861) was a European Christian missionary, educator, translator and writer. She was a leader of zenana missions, setting up schools for girls and writing what is arguably the first novel in Bengali. She spent most ...

wrote ''Phoolmani O Karunar Bibaran'' in 1852. This is regarded as the first novel in Bengali; ''Alaler Gharer Dulal'' was published in 1858, as per ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' page 423. Harinath Mazumdar wrote a novel ''Bijay Basanta'' at the same time as per ''Ramtanu Lahiri O Tatkalin Banga Samaj'', page 88. The simple prose style introduced in the novel came to be known as "Alali language". The novel was first published serially in a monthly magazine, ''Masik Patrika''. Later, a dramatised version was staged at the

Bengal Theatre Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

(January 1875).

Footnotes

References

* * Bhattacharya, Ramkrishna
''Alal'' in Translation
* ''Alaler Gharer Dulal'', Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: A-Devo (1987) ed. Amaresh Datta
p. 126

External links

* https://archive.org/details/TheSpoiltChild * * 1857 novels 19th-century Indian novels Bengali-language literature Bengali-language novels Novels set in Kolkata {{1860s-novel-stub