The household is a fairly unexceptional one, but the different family members' characters (except infant Opu's) already show through in this first section: testy (if also loving) Shorbojoya the often uninvolved or outright absent Horihor curious Durga, always roaming and gathering. The death of Indir Thakrun brought the old days to an end in Nishchindipur village.ĭurga is the only one who is truly fond of the old woman, while Shorbojoya and Indir constantly quarrel, with the old woman repeatedly going off in a huff (to the relief of Shorbojoya, glad to be rid of her, and the disappointment of Durga), but inevitably returning. The big events in 'The Old Aunt', however, are the birth of their son, Khoka ("most baby boys are called Khoka"), - also called Opu - and then the death of Indir, which marks a turning point: We learn a bit about Horihor's life and there are some recollections of the past - for example, his reunion with Shorbojoya, whom he had been married to as a child and then only met again (and brought back home as his wife) a decade later, when both were adult. In the first part the old aunt, Indir Thakrun - "a distant widowed relative of Horihor's", with nowhere else to go - is the dominant adult and, along with Horihor's then six-year-old daughter, Durga, the main figure. The novel is divided into two parts of very different length: a relatively short first one, 'The Old Aunt', and then the much longer 'Children Make their Own Toys'. In fact, Horihor is only intermittently a real presence in the story - responsible for the family, and their circumstances, but also away from the house much of the time, he becomes a somewhat secondary figure in this novel that centers on the world of his two children, and how they perceive it. It was the last house at the extreme northern end of the village.Īll he had to live on was the meagre rent from a tiny plot of land he had inherited from his father and some fees paid to him by a few households he served as family priest. He lived in a small brick-built house in the village of Nishchindipur. The opening paragraph of Pather Panchali introduces the pater familias of the quartet at the heart of this family-novel, and covers most of the essentials: We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. (.) Banerji's simplicity quite remarkably excludes sentimentality" - Julian Symons, Sunday Times "The attraction of his work for English readers is the straightforwardness, untinged by explicit social comment, with which he puts down the details in the village of Nischindipur and the perfect sympathy of his feelings for the small boy Opu and his older sister Durga through whose experiences the scene is conveyed.Pather Panchali was made into a film in 1955, directed by Satyajit Ray.Translated by T.W.Clark and Tarapada Mukherji.General information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs. Pather Panchali - Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay
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