Synopsis
"These prose translations from Rabindranath Tagore have stirred my blood as nothing has for years," wrote W.B. Yeats in 1912, a year before Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first Asian writer so honored. Traveling the world for several decades and sharing both his artistic and spiritual gifts with millions, Tagore was praised and admired in his time like no other twentieth-century writer as a spiritual seer and a literary genius.
This biography, the product of more than ten years of research and collaboration between the authors, is the first work in many decades to disentangle the profound and perplexing contradictions that made Tagore such a fascinating and pivotal figure. He was one of the very first to perceive that - despite the great geographic and cultural distance between them - East and West would be compelled to meet in the twentieth century. Truly myriad-minded, Tagore expressed the pleasure and pain of this encounter in poetry, songwriting, and painting. "I can now imagine a powerful and gentle Christ, which I never could before," Charles Darwin's granddaughter told a friend after meeting Rabindranath.
Focusing more on the man than his art and drawing extensively on newly uncovered material, Rabindranath Tagore brings to life a brilliant artist and his complicated times. Passionate, compelling, and insightful, Tagore's story has the power to move its readers in the very core of their being.
Présentation de l'éditeur
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) - poet, philosopher, painter, novelist, playwright, composer, traveler, political commentator and Asia's first Nobel Laureate - was one of his era's cultural icons: the 'Great Sentinel', said Gandhi. His works reshaped Bengali literature, music and thought and had a profound and lasting impact on the West. He was feted by some of the most prominent and influential artists, writers and political leaders and equally adored by ordinary men and women across the world. Proclaimed as the greatest poet India has ever produced, Tagore left an astonishing legacy undimmed nearly 70 years after his death.But he was also an enigmatic, complex and contradictory figure, torn between India's spiritual values and the spirit of the West. In this definitive biography, Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson explore the man behind the myth, presenting the power of his person, the power of his name and the power of his work, revealing Tagore's personality in all its myriad-mindedness. The result is an enlightening and exquisitely rendered portrayal-not of the legend but, to quote Tagore, of 'the figure that once moved.' 'A fascinating book about a fascinating man, a work that addresses the profound conflict between eastern spirituality and western rationality.' - Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Laureate; 'An excellent book... as an elegantly argued and subtly shaded portrait it will be difficult to supersede.' - Frank McLynn, Literary Review; 'Enjoyable, astute and highly readable.' - Amit Chaudhuri, Spectator; 'This seems to exemplify a sort of biography little dared anymore; an enquiry into the spirit and mind of a man whom the authors trust and admire and do not presume to overinterpret.' - Candia McWilliam, Independent on Sunday; 'Excellent... admirably straightforward, readable, lively, informative.' - J.D.F. Jones, Financial Times; 'Judicious, sympathetic and exceedingly well documented.' - P.N. Furbank, The Times; 'It has been a pleasure to read a well-written, well-researched and well-documented biography.' - Kathleen Raine, The Tablet; 'A painstaking, informative, well-written biography.' - Nicholas Mosley, Daily Telegraph; 'Dutta and Robinson's lively narrative steers clear of facile categories...so revealing the subtle nuances of East and West in the poet's sensibility.' - Maria Couto, Guardian; 'An ambitious and altogether brilliant biography... exceptionally fair-minded.' - Sunday (Calcutta); 'Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson have established themselves as the pre-eminent Tagore scholars.' - K. Natwar Singh, Asian Age
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