Bridget Jones’s Diary

Originally published in Bengali in 1912, this account of the first 27 years of Rabindranath Tagore life was published in English in 1917. Starting with an account of his Spartan upbringing in a large joint family, Tagore describes the early years of education, his first real acquaintance with his ascetic father on a trip to the Himalaya, his apprenticeship in poetry, music and theatre under the tutelage of his remarkable cousin, his first visit to England, and the composition of his earliest works. The book ends with an important death which deeply affected Tagore’s poetic personality.