LETTER FROM PEKING

Letter from Peaking is a beautiful love story by Pearl. S. Buck. It is in the form of entries in a diary,
Elizabeth, the most important character of the novel, keeps a diary. The first entry is dated 25 September, 1950. Elizabeth is the only child of her parents.
At Radcliffe College Elizabeth meets Gerald Macleod and falls in love with him. Gerald is the son of Dr. Macleod, the American advisor of Chinese Emperor. Elizabeth’s mother reluctantly agrees to their marriage. But she cannot accept her daughter going to China.
Elizabeth and Gerald go to China and settle down. Elizabeth soon becomes used to the Chinese way of life. She also learns the Chinese language. The happy couples first born child Ro-an dies and they are plunged into grief. Soon she gives birth to a boy.
The Japanese invasion of China disturbs their idyllic life. Elizabeth leaves China with their son Rennie. Gerald stays back to take care of his faculty at the college. Later it become impossible for him to leave China
Gerald writes to Elizabeth and keeps in touch with his family. As time goes on the frequency of the letters comes down. Then she does not get any letter for three months. On 25 September she receives a letter from Gerald that hurts her much. Gerald, in the letter, asks her to allow him to marry his Chinese house keeper. She does not send reply.
Many months later she receives another letter from his house keeper informing her of Gerald’s death. Only then she learns why he wrote the letter asking her permission to marry his house keeper.

GITANJALI OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE

.Rabindranath Tagore is the only Indian to win the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature. Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Gitanlali’ is a collection of one hundred and three poems or songs. They are remarkable for their simplicity. Tagore weaves noble sentiments together with great ease and explores man’s relationships with God.
Abbe Bremond once said that poetry aspires to be like prayer. Then Tagore’s poetry is a prayer. He writes,
“Like a flock of homesick cranes flying night and day back to their mountain nests, let all my life take its voyage to its eternal home in one salutation to thee”.
It does not mean that one has to spend ones life at places of worship ignoring material life. He says,
“Leave the chanting and singling and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee”.
Tagore does not despise the physical, material world and the life lived in it. He does not see material life as an obstacle to be overcome to attain salvation. He is of the view that the world offers countless ways to realize God. He says the infinite expresses itself in finite forms in the material world
Tagore urges us not to shut our eyes and plug our ears. On the contrary, he wants us to keep our eyes wide open and ears to the ground. If we do so, we can realize the infinite ways in which God manifests himself. If man sought God sincerely and honestly, God would seek man.
Gitanjali reflects what has been described as Tagore’s Spiritual Realism and International Humanism. Tagore does not see spiritualism as something opposite to materialism. He urges his readers to realize God through material surroundings. Tagore seeks to teach us through ‘Gitanlali’ and other poems that there is a unifying principle that holds the diverse and contradictory forces in nature together.
When Tagore visited England in 1912, he showed ‘Gitanjali’ to the great painter Rothenstein who passed it on to W.B. Yeats. All of them were captivated by its charm. They were not the kind of poems that was being written in those days. Their freshness and novelty delighted them. The legendary Shakespearean critic, A.C.Bradley spoke of the poems in glowing terms. The Literary Supplement of ‘The Times’ appreciated his poems.
In fact Taogre had published a book titled ‘Gitanjali’ in Bengali language before 1910. Only fifty of them are included in the English version. The other poems or songs were taken from his Bengali writings such as ‘Nivedya’, ‘Khaya’, ‘Geetimalya’, “Sishu” and ‘Utsarg’. Those who know both Bengali and English say that the Bengali version is far better than the English version.
Taoge passed away on 7 August 1941.

NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR

“Nineteen Eighty Four”, hailed as a masterpiece of political satire, appeared in 1949. It was Orwells’s last work. It secured his position in the world of literature. By the time he came to write it, tuberculosis had been carving out his life. On 23 January 1950 Orwell suffered a haemorrhage and died
‘Nineteen Eight Four’ is about a sate called ‘Oceania’. The state is administered by four ministries. The Ministry of Love is responsible for law and order. The ministry of Peace deals with wars. The Ministry of Truth handles the news, education, entertainment and fine arts. And the ministry of Plenty handles the economic affairs. These four ministries are overseen by what Orwell calls the Big Brother, an omnipotent being like God. He is invisible and invincible. Emmanuel Goldstein, the enemy of the Big Brother, is another character who never comes in the open. He is said to be hiding somewhere in the country plotting to overthrow the Big Brother. He is liberal compared with the Big Brother.
The story unfolds through the incidents in the life of Winston Smith, employed in the Ministry of Truth. His job is to manipulate and forge records as and when the circumstance demands. His is to read all the papers, journals, magazines and report ‘the truth’. “The Truth” being variable, he has to be alert and vigilant. He is entrusted with the job of erasing the past and substituting it with new revelation.
In order to alter and falsify the records, elaborate arrangements have been made. Even a new language called ‘New Speak’ is introduced and taught in schools. Dictionaries containing the words of new speak are published. Through these, the government seeks to control the thought process itself. Orwell says “The purpose of new speak was not only to produce a medium of expression for the world view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible”.
If anyone deviates and thinks differently from the course charted by the Big Brother, he is accused of ‘thought crime’. The aim of Newspeak is to make thought crime impossible. Some of the most important and moist frequently used words in the Newspeak are ‘double speak’, ‘black white’ and ‘double think’. ‘Double speak’ means quacking like a duck. A double speak word has two contradictory meanings. When it is used in reference to an opponent, it is a word of abuse. However, when it is used in reference to an ally it is a word of compliment.

TESS OF THE d'URBERVILLES

“On an evening in the latter part of May a middle aged man was walking house ward from Shaston to the village of Marlotte, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor. The pair of legs that carried him wee rickety, and there was a bias in his gait which inclined him somewhat on the left of a straight line”.
That is how the Tess of the d’Urbervilles, one of the famous novels of Thomas Hardy begins. The sub title of the novel ‘A Pure Woman’ enraged his country men steeped in the Victorian moral values. Although Hardy stood firm, the reaction of the people did hurt him very much.
Tess is a simple country girl born to Jack Durbyfield and Joan Durbyfield. She has a young brother. Her father Jack is a haggler. One day the clergy man tells him that he could be the descendents of the great d’Urbervilles
Jack begins to build castles in the air and refuses to work any more. Young Tess takes up the responsibility of her family upon her. Joan, her mother urges her to visit the d’Urbervilles and seek help. Half heartedly Tess agrees and visits them. Though Tess does not like the people there she joins them as a maid. Alec the wayward son of her mistress makes advances towards her. However, Tess manages to evade him. Not for long. One day when Tess is exhausted Alec forces himself upon her. Innocent Tess does not realize the seriousness of what has happened until she finds out that she is pregnant. An avalanche of incidents follows the discovery that ruins Tess and her family.
Hardy believed that a person was to be judged according to the person’s intentions not by actions. From that point of view Tess could not be accused of any wrong doing.
The book is full of coincidences. However, the reader does not find them unbelievable though he is often tempted to think that Hardy makes much of the coincidences. That life entirely depends on chance happenings irrespective of the intention of the person is difficult to accept. Whether Hardy holds such a view is to be debated. Hardy holds Tess’s parents responsible for her sufferings.
Tess tells her mother that if she had warned her about the dangers in men in time, she would not have been deceived by Alec. Of course we could also say that if her father had not been negligent and if her mother had not sent Tess to Alec’s place Tess’s life would have taken a different course
The heroin of the story Tess, is based on a girl Hardy had seen in his village. She was driving a horse cart when hardy saw her. It was first published in the form of a series in The Graphic. One of the great tragic novels of the world Tess of the d’Urbervilles was published in the book form in 1891.