''The Essential Tagore'' is the largest collection of

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

's works available in English. It was published by

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

in the United States and

Visva-Bharati University Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the w ...

in India to mark the 150th anniversary of Tagore's birth.

Fakrul Alam Fakrul Alam (born 20 July 1951) is a Bangladeshi academic, writer, and translator. He writes on literary matters and postcolonial issues and translated works of Jibanananda Das and Rabindranath Tagore into English. He is the recipient of Bangla A ...

and Radha Chakrabarthy edited the anthology. Among the notable contributors who translated Tagore's works for this anthology are

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

Amit Chaudhuri Amit Chaudhuri (born 15 May 1962) is a novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, singer, and music composer from India. He was Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia from 2006 to 2021, Since 2020, he has ...

Sunetra Gupta Sunetra Gupta (born 15 March 1965) is an Indian-born British infectious disease epidemiologist and a professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. She has performed research on the transmission dynamic ...

Syed Manzoorul Islam Syed Manzoorul Islam (born 18 January 1951) is a Bangladeshi critic, writer and a former professor of University of Dhaka, Dhaka University. As a literary critic, he has written criticism on writers including Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Kazi Nazrul I ...

, and

Kaiser Haq Kaiser Hamidul Haq (born 7 December 1950) is a Bangladeshi translator, critic and academic. Known for his translations from Bengali into English, Haq is a recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award (2013) in the category of translation. He is a fo ...

Martha Nussbaum Martha Craven Nussbaum (; born May 6, 1947) is an American philosopher and the current Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she is jointly appointed in the law school and the philosoph ...

, a philosopher, writer and critic proposed the book as the 'Book of the Year' in the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' published on November 21, 2011. The anthology is around eight hundred pages long, divided into ten sections, each devoted to a different facet of Tagore's achievement. In this anthology, the editors endeavored to represent his extraordinary achievements in ten genres: poetry, songs, autobiographical works, letters, travel writings, prose, novels, short stories, humorous pieces, and plays. Most of the translations were done in modern contemporary English. Besides the new translations, it includes a sampling of works originally composed in English, Tagore's translations of his own works.

Critical reception

Initial reviews for ''the Essential Tagore'' were almost all positive. Immediately after the publication, it received positive reviews worldwide. Barry Hill in ''

the Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'' welcomed the publication as "a wonderful job" and "almost all gold". Praising the editors and translators,

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...

exclaimed that though the excellence of Tagore's work is difficult to preserve in translation, they did a splendid job of producing a beautiful volume of selections from Tagore's vast body of writings. He also praised Amit Chaudhuri for his enjoyable and remarkably far-reaching foreword. In ''

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'' Seamus Perry wrote that the anthology testifies to Tagore's capability in many diverse modes, and quite distinct aspects of his genius. In the magazine ''

Bookforum ''Bookforum'' is an American book review magazine devoted to books and the discussion of literature that was based in New York City, New York. The magazine was founded in 1994 and announced in December of 2022 it would cease publishing after ...

'',

Aravind Adiga Aravind Adiga (born 23 October 1974) is an Indian writer and journalist. His debut novel, '' The White Tiger'', won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. Biography Early life and education Aravind Adiga was born in Madras (now Chennai) on 23 October 197 ...

opined that the anthology reintroduced a great writer to the world. Amardeep Singh of ''

Open Letters Monthly ''Open Letters Monthly'' or ''Open Letters Monthly: an Arts and Literature Review'', was an online arts and culture magazine. It was founded in 2007 by Sam Sacks, John Cotter, and Steve Donoghue, and published its last issue in 2017. It features lo ...

'' thought that ''the Essential Tagore'' "dwarfes(ed) all previous efforts" that were made to translate Tagore's work into English.

Contents of the book

* List of Illustrations * Foreword: Poetry as Polemic by Amit Chaudhuri * Introduction 1. Autobiography *Autobiographical *From Reminiscences *From Boyhood Days *My School 2. Letters *From Torn Leaves *From Letter-Fragments *To Mrinalini Devi *To

Jagadish Chandra Bose Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, Botany, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contr ...

*To

Myron H. Phelps Myron Henry Phelps (Lewiston, Fulton County, Illinois, 2 April 1856 - Bombay, 29 December 1916) was a New York lawyer and religious writer. He was known for his interest in Buddhism, and studied and wrote about the Baháʼí Faith and the Radha Soa ...

*To

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

*To

Robert Bridges Robert Seymour Bridges (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was an English poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is ...

*To James Drummonds Anderson *To Lord Chelmsford *To

Charles Freer Andrews Charles Freer Andrews (12 February 1871 – 5 April 1940) was an Anglican priest and Christian missionary, educator and social reformer, and an activist for Indian independence. He became a close friend of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gand ...

*To Kanti Chandra Ghosh *To Edward John Thompson *To

Kazi Nazrul Islam Kazi Nazrul Islam ( bn, কাজী নজরুল ইসলাম, ; 24 May 1899 – 29 August 1976) was a Bengali poet, Bengali literature, writer, Bangladeshi music, musician, and is the national poet of Bangladesh. Nazrul is regarded as one ...

*To

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

*To Sir

*To

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

*To

Mahadev Desai Mahadev Haribhai Desai (1 January 1892 – 15 August 1942) was an Indian independence activist, scholar and writer best remembered as Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary. He has variously been described as "Gandhi's Boswell, a Plato to G ...

*To

Sufia Kamal Begum Sufia Kamal (20 June 1911 – 20 November 1999) was a Bangladeshi poet, feminist leader, and political activist. She took part in the Bengali nationalist movement of the 1950s and civil society leader in independent Bangladesh. She led fe ...

*To Pulinbehari Sen *To

Victoria Ocampo Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo (7 April 1890 – 27 January 1979) was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine '' Sur'', she was also a writer and critic in he ...

*To Revd. Foss Westcott 3. Prose *From Self-Reliance and Other Essays *Statecraft and Ethics *The Components of Literature *The Significance of Literature *The Problem of Self *Nationalism in the West *The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech *From Thoughts from Rabindranath Tagore *My Pictures * Hindus and Muslims *The Tenant Farmer * Crisis in Civilization 4. Poems *The Fountain's Awakening *Enough, Enough! *Life *Undressed *Breasts *Kissing *The Golden Boat *The Two Birds *I Won't Let You Go *Unfathomable *Voyage without End *To Civilization *My Little Plot of Land *A Hundred Years from Now *The Lord of Life *Love Queries *Krishnakali *The Poet *The Hero *Big and Small *Astronomy *On the Day Thou Breakst Through This My Name *More Life, My Lord *Thy Rod of Justice *The Day I Depart *It Hasn't Rained in My Heart *When Life Dries Up *If the Day Ends *This Stormy Night *A Flight of Geese *The Restless One *Dawn and Dusk *Free! *Sunday *Hymn to the Tree *Woman Empowered *Wind Instrument *Letter Writing *An Ordinary Woman *Camellia *The Twenty-Fifth of Baisakh *I *Africa *I Saw in the Twilight *Romantic *The Night Train *Waking Up in the Morning I See *They Work * On the Banks of Roop-Naran *The Sun of the First Day *Dark Nights of Sorrow *On the Way to Creation 5. Songs *Devotional Songs *Patriotic Songs *Love Songs *Songs of Nature *Miscellaneous Songs 6. Plays *Roktokorobi *The Kingdom of Cards 7. Stories *The Return of Khoka Babu *The Legacy *Shubha *Mahamaya *The In-Between Woman *Hungry Stone * A Broken Nest *The Wife's Letter *The Final Word *The Tale of a Muslim Woman 8. Novels *From Gora *From Connections *From Farewell Song *From Four Chapters 9. Humor *Denge the Black Ant's Observations *Aryans and Non-Aryans *The Funeral *Ordeal *Testing the Student *The Invention of Shoes *From Out of Sync 10. Travel Writing *The City of Bombay *Crossing the Ocean *Travel *Stopford Brooke *The English Village and the Clergy *From Journey to Japan *Letter to Pratima Devi *From Letters from Russia *From In Persia * Chronology * Notes * Glossary * Further Reading * Acknowledgments * Contributors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Essential Tagore Works by Rabindranath Tagore 2011 books Translations into English