The book by a well-known literary critic O.P. Mathur presents some stray sparks of the author’s critical fervour thrown up on variety of writers and works of different times. About some of these essays, earlier published generally in a different form or version, mention has been made in acknowledgements. An impressive majority of the essays written recently include new approaches which might be interest to readers.
The opening essay deals with values that like latent currents underlie all literature. The bulk of the other essays have a wide coverage - from the British Romantic poets to their Indian counterparts Sarojini Naidu and Rabindranath Tagore. The essays on modern writers of importance explore the works of Amitav Ghosh and the more recent works of Salman Rushdie and Arvind Adiga.
The other established or emerging Indian authors include Basavaraj Naikar, I.K. Sharma, Syed Ameeruddin and Alexander Raju. By the way, one of the essays focuses on a winged creature, the poor nightingale, which has inspired a host of English poets from the medieval to the modern in remarkably different ways.
The author is glad to present this book to his esteemed readers and prays to the almighty to bless his continuing literary efforts. |
