R.K.
NARAYAN
- Dr. PRITI BALA SHARMA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• Won Sahitya Academy Award in 1960 for THE GUIDE.
• ‘his mother tongue was Tamil, settled down in Mysore, where he used
Kannada and he wrote in English. He finished his education in Cambridge
and London and chose Journalism as his career.’
• Contributed an article The Fiction Writer in India in Atlantic Monthly
Supplement.
•
His Contribution
• 1. SWAMI AND FRIENDS (1935)
• Delightful Account of a schoolboy Named Swaminathan. Also known as Swami.
• This work is a novelette. Graham Greene once said about this work,
‘It is a classical schoolboy story of a child, written with complete objectivity,
with the humor strange for our fiction, closer to Chekov than to any other English
writer with the same underlying sense of beauty and sadness.’
Swami and Friends
• The story begins with the boys who tease Swami calling him as ‘Rajan’s tail’. A
quarrel follows in which the headmaster of the school has to intervene. There
occurs a nonviolent movement in Malgudi. Swami and his friends lead a crowd to
the Board High school and interfere with the work rudely. Swami has to join the
Board High school. A CRICKET ELEVEN is formed as M.C.C by Rajan. Swami Is
invited by them to practice. The headmaster was angry with him for not attending
his last class. So he punishes Swami. Swami runs away from Malgudi but after
two days he was found by the people and brought back to his father. The MCC
matches played out and lost. Later on, Rajan’s father and DSP gets transferred
to another city. Swami and Mangi go to the station and part as friends.
• (Malgudi Days - मालगुडी डेज -
Episode 1 - Swami And Friends – YouTube)
2. The Bachelor of Arts
• Deals with college life
• The hero is Chandran, B.A
• Falls in love with Malthi, cannot marry
her due to the opposition of his mother.
• Becomes sanyasi, re-joins domestic
life and marries Sushila.
• Becomes chief agent of The Daily
Messenger.
3. The English Teacher
• Third novel dealing with school and
college life of India.
• Krishnan, the hero, is an English teacher.
Believed in freedom of soul and
independence of mind.
• His wife Sushila dies of typhoid, dedicates
his life in bringing up his daughter Leela.
• Autobiographical elements.
• Dedicated to his wife ‘RAJAM’.
4. The Dark Room (1938)
• Savitri, submissive and neglected wife
of Ramani.
• Three children Kamala, Sumati and
Babu.
• Torrid affair of Ramani with his
employee.
• Savitri decides to commits suicide,
fails, works in a temples but returns
home.
5. The Financial Expert (1952)
• Rise and fall of Maragayya
• Gives advise to people and
becomes rich.
• His son is spoiled so re joins his
business as financial wizard again.
• Psychological analysis
6. Mr. Sampat, The Printer of Malgudi
• Mr. Sampat, owner of Truth
Printing Works. He prints The
Weekly.
• Due to the strike of workers, he
persuades Shrinivas to write a
film story. He falls in love with
the heroine. He returns home.
7. The Guide (1956)
• Three phases
• Raju as a railway guide
• Raju as an impresario
• Raju as a pseudo saint
• 1960- Sahitya Academy award
9. Waiting for Mahatama (1955)
• Gandhian freedom struggle
• Love story of Sriram and Bharati
• tragedy of India's partition in 1947 and
Gandhi's death in 1948
10. The Vendor of Sweets (1967)
• Gandhian motif.
• Jagan, sweet vendor and Gandhian
• Mali, his son, comes back from
U.S.A with a girl
• Plans to devise a novel writing
machine
• Jagan renounces the world
11. The Painter of Signs (1976)
• Raman, the hero, sign painter
loves Daisy
• His aunt doesnot accept this
relation
• Daisy leaves Raman.
• Mention of King Shantanu and
Ganga
SHORT STORIES OF R.K.NARAYAN
• 1. cyclone and other stories • Gods, Demons and Other Stories
• Dodu and Other Stories • A Horse and Two Goats
• Malgudi Days
• An Astrologer’s Day and Other
Stories
• Lowley Road and Other Stories
R.K.Narayan
• Regional Novels • Campus novel
• portrays the social customs, behaviour, language, • a novel whose main action is set in and around the
culture, historical background, dialect of that region campus of a university
that affect the life of a character
• Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim
• To show the local colours, temperament and
• Realistic and imaginary elements
difficulties of characters, detailed description.
• • Complex relationship in college
Characters are stick to that particular place/setting
• Thomas Hardy – Wessax novels
• Faulkner - Yoknapatawa county
• R.K Narayan- Malgudi village
