Glimpses of Bengal: The Letters of Rabindranath Tagore

Glimpses of Bengal: The Letters of Tagore (1917) is a selection of letters by Rabindranath Tagore. Published after Tagore received the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, Glimpses of Bengal: The Letters of Tagore collects letters from 1885 to 1895, a period designated by the author as “the most productive period of [his] literary life.” Bridging the gap between fiction and nonfiction, these letters contain personal reflections on the political situation in India, mediations on nature and poetry, and stunning vignettes of life in the nineteenth century. “The unsheltered sea heaves and heaves and blanches into foam. It sets me thinking of some tied-up monster straining at its bonds, in front of whose gaping jaws we build our homes on the shore and watch it lashing its tail.” In this selection of letters, Tagore is at his philosophical, poetic best, reflecting earnestly and with ease on matters public and private. A young man, he writes with the clarity and wisdom of one who has lived many times over, granting readers a glimpse of the iconic figure he would become toward the end of his life and career. His portrait of Bengal is heartfelt and true, unadorned and yet possessing an almost mystical quality. Whether describing his travels upriver by boat or a dream journey through a Calcutta immersed in “a dense, dark mist,” Tagore never fails to intrigue, enrapture, and enlighten. This edition of Rabindranath Tagore’s Glimpses of Bengal: The Letters of Tagore is a classic of Indian literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was an Indian poet, composer, philosopher, and painter from Bengal. Born to a prominent Brahmo Samaj family, Tagore was raised mostly by servants following his mother’s untimely death. His father, a leading philosopher and reformer, hosted countless artists and intellectuals at the family mansion in Calcutta, introducing his children to poets, philosophers, and musicians from a young age. Tagore avoided conventional education, instead reading voraciously and studying astronomy, science, Sanskrit, and classical Indian poetry. As a teenager, he began publishing poems and short stories in Bengali and Maithili. Following his father’s wish for him to become a barrister, Tagore read law for a brief period at University College London, where he soon turned to studying the works of Shakespeare and Thomas Browne. In 1883, Tagore returned to India to marry and manage his ancestral estates. During this time, Tagore published his Manasi (1890) poems and met the folk poet Gagan Harkara, with whom he would work to compose popular songs. In 1901, having written countless poems, plays, and short stories, Tagore founded an ashram, but his work as a spiritual leader was tragically disrupted by the deaths of his wife and two of their children, followed by his father’s death in 1905. In 1913, Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first lyricist and non-European to be awarded the distinction. Over the next several decades, Tagore wrote his influential novel The Home and the World (1916), toured dozens of countries, and advocated on behalf of Dalits and other oppressed peoples.