The title character in The English Teacher, Narayan's most autobiographical novel, searches for meaning when the death of his young wife deprives him of his greatest source of happiness.
R. K. Narayan Livres







The Man-eater of Malgudi
- 176pages
- 7 heures de lecture
This is the story of Nataraj, who earns his living as a printer in the little world of Malgudi, an imaginary town in South India. Nataraj and his close friends, a poet and a journalist, find their congenial days disturbed when Vasu, a powerful taxidermist, moves in with his stuffed hyenas and pythons, and brings his dancing-women up the printer's private stairs. When Vasu, in search of larger game, threatens the life of a temple elephant that Nataraj has befriended, complications ensue that are both laughable and tragic.
A Malgudi Omnibus
- 640pages
- 23 heures de lecture
Here are three of R. K. Narayan's most famous and best loved novels: Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. All set in the imaginary Indian town of Malgudi, these irresistible works provide the perfect introduction to a universal world of humour, sadness, wisdom and joy.
Malgudi Days
- 246pages
- 9 heures de lecture
Introducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India "the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story." Powerful, magical portraits of all kinds of people, and comprising stories written over almost forty years, Malgudi Days presents Narayan's imaginary city in full color.
Swami is ten years old, and life for him consists mainly of having adventures with his friends, avoiding the misery of homework, and coping as best as he can with the teachers and other adults he encounters.
The Ramayana
- 300pages
- 11 heures de lecture
A sweeping tale of abduction, battle, and courtship played out in a universe of deities and demons, The Ramayana is familiar to virtually every Indian. Although the Sanskrit original was composed by Valmiki around the fourth century BC, poets have produced countless versions in different languages. Here, drawing on the work of an eleventh-century poet called Kamban, Narayan employs the skills of a master novelist to re-create the excitement he found in the original. A luminous saga made accessible to new generations of readers, The Ramayana can be enjoyed for its spiritual wisdom, or as a thrilling tale of ancient conflict.
My Days
Autobiography
In his usual winning, humorous style, R. K. Narayan shares his life story, beginning in his grandmother's garden in Madras with his ferocious pet peacock. As a young boy with no interest in school, he trains grasshoppers, scouts, and generally takes part in life's excitements. Against the advice of all, especially his commanding headmaster father, the dreaming Narayan takes to writing fiction, and one of his pieces is accepted by Punch magazine (his "first prestige publication"). Soon his life includes bumbling British diplomats, curious movie moguls, evasive Indian officials, eccentric journalists, and "the blind urge" to fall in love. R. K. Narayan's larger-than-life perception of the human comedy is at once acute and forgiving, and always true to it.
Srinivas, editor of "The Banner" and its sole contributor, concerns himself with artistic and intellectual problems. Mr Sampath, its printer, amicably shoulders the financial burdens. When the paper folds - a surprise to them both - Mr Sampath sees a way to save an equable partnership.
A Tiger For Malgudi
- 176pages
- 7 heures de lecture
R. K. Narayan's magnificent new novel is about a tiger possessed of the soul of an enlightened human being who tells us the story of his life. Raja leaves his home in the Mempi hills only to find he is captured and made to perform in a circus and on a film set. Eventually he escapes, only to be recaptured - but this time voluntarily - by a guru. The two of them leave Malgudi and return to the hills where they pass their days in sweet philosophical discourse until old age overtakes Raja and he is forced to give up his freedom for ever. A haunting tale, A Tiger For Malgudi uniquely combines the elusive timeless quality of Hindu legend with the comic vision of Narayan's earlier Malgudi novels. Everyone, young and old, will enjoy the very simplicity of this compelling fable, but some will want to explore with Raja the pathway to true enlightenment.
For the centennial of his birth, R. K. Narayan's most celebrated novel Formerly India's most corrupt tourist guide, Raju—just released from prison—seeks refuge in an abandoned temple. Mistaken for a holy man, he plays the part and succeeds so well that God himself intervenes to put Raju's newfound sanctity to the test. Narayan's most celebrated novel, The Guide won him the National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, his country's highest literary honor. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Tales from Malgudi
- 96pages
- 4 heures de lecture
The Mahabharata
- 192pages
- 7 heures de lecture
Includes characters who are obsessed with the rise and fall of gods, empires and heroes.
The Bachelor Of Arts
- 166pages
- 6 heures de lecture
Offering rare insight into the complexities of Indian middle-class society, R. K. Narayan traces life in the fictional town of Malgudi. Narayan writes of youth and young adulthood in the semiautobiographical The Bachelor of Arts. Although the ordinary tensions of maturing are heightened by the particular circumstances of pre-partition India, Narayan provides a universal vision of childhood, early love and grief.
A Tale Of Remarkable Insight Into The Upsurge Of Indian Nationalism As Witnessed Through The Eyes And Hearts Of Sriram And Bharati, The Main Characters, And Told With All The Genius And Cmpassion One Has Come To Expect From R.K. Narayan.
While Krishna teaches at the Albert Mission College his wife and daughter live some distance away with his parents-in-law. But a move to a small rented house soon permits the couple to enjoy a life of marital bliss. Yet paradise is short-lived... Never has the magical storyteller of imaginary Malgudi woven tragedy and humour so deftly together.
The apple of his eye is his son Mali, for whom he feels a deep but absurdly embarrassed affection, which appears to go unrequited. When Mali coolly announces that he is abandoning school to go to America to become a writer, Jagan's fatherly feelings are thrown into still greater confusion. And when, a year or two later, Mali returns with a half-Korean, half-American wife and a grandiose scheme for marketing a novel-writing machine, Jagan is utterly at sea. He is confronted by the new world shockingly personified - a world where his cherished notions of marriage and morals seem to count for nothing. The tragicomic clash of the generations deepens with every chapter. Jagan's final escape from the galling chains of paternal love comes as unexpectedly as every other twist in this delicious story.
The Financial Expert
- 218pages
- 8 heures de lecture
Margayya is a complex and entrancing character with a flair for those fabulously involved minor financial transactions which are an integral part of Indian life. We first met him sitting in the shade of a banyan tree, advising the people of Malgudi how to extract loans from the Co-operative Bank. A brush with the Secretary of the Bank, and an accident in which his spoilt son Balu throws his account book down a drain, cut short his career as a financier; but after a series of amusing incidents Margayya grows rich and reverts to financial wizardy. Apart from the vigour of the narrative, what is remarkable about the book is the unselfconsious ease and humour with which R K Narayan conveys the flavour of Indian life.
MR Sampath - The Printer of Malgudi
- 224pages
- 8 heures de lecture
Fresh form the presses of the Truth Printing Works, the weekly edition of The Banner enjoys a certain distinction. Srinivas, its editor and sole contributor, concerns himself with artistic and intellectual problems: Mr Sampath, its printer, amicably shoulders the financial burdens. When the paper folds - a surprise to them both - Mr Sampath sees a way to save an equable partnership. With splendid magnanimity he arranges for Srinivas to write the filmscripts for Sunrise Productions. Unfortunately, the glamour of it all goes quite to Mr Sampath's head, and his sudden change of fortune leads to sublime, unmitigated chaos .
The World of Nagaraj
- 186pages
- 7 heures de lecture
Nagaraj's world is quite and comfortable. Living in his family's spacious house with only his wife Sita for company, he fills his day writing letters, drinking coffee, doing some leisurely book keeping for his friend Coomar's Boeing Sari Company, and sitting on his veranda watching the world and planning the book he intends to write about the life of the great sage Narada. But everything is disturbed when Tim, the son of his ambitious landowing brother Gopu, decides to leave home and come to live with Nagaraj. Forced to take responsibility for the boy, puzzled by his secret late-night activities and by the strong smell of sprits which lingers behind him, Nagaraj finds his days, suddenly filled with unwelcome complication and turbulence, which threaten to alter for ever the contented tranquility of his world. The latest of R.K.Narayan's magnificent Malgudi books, The World of Nagaraj is beautifully written, funny and haunting , evoking in marvelously rich detail the atmosphere of a small town in southern India and creating a magical world into which the reader is instantly drawn.
The Painter of Signs
- 148pages
- 6 heures de lecture
For Raman the sign painter, life is a familiar and satisfying routine. A man of simple, rational ways, he lives with his pious aunt and prides himself on his creative work. But all that changes when he meets Daisy, a thrillingly independent young woman who wishes to bring birth control to the area. Hired to create signs for her clinics, Raman finds himself smitten by a love he cannot understand, much less avoidaand soon realizes that life isnat so routine anymore. Set in R. K. Narayanas fictional city of Malgudi, "The Painter of Signs" is a wry, bittersweet treasure.
Gods, Demons and Others
- 243pages
- 9 heures de lecture
The Indian Epics Retold
- 630pages
- 23 heures de lecture
One Of India s Finest Novelists Retells The Two Great Indian Epics As Well As Some Well-Known Tales From Hindu Mythology And Folklore. While The Eleventh Century Tamil Poet Kamban s Version Inspires His Ramayana, Narayan S Mahabharata Is Based On Vyasa S Monumental Work. In Gods, Demons And Others, He Includes Stories From Kalidasa S Sanskrit Classic Abhijnana Shakuntalam, The Tamil Epic Silappadikaram, The Shiv Purana And The Devi Bhagwatam.
Il nostro amico Sampath
- 237pages
- 9 heures de lecture
In Malgudi beginnt Raju seine Karriere als der verlogenste und deshalb erfolgreichste Fremdenführer weit und breit. Unter seinen Kunden entdeckt er eine Tänzerin, und als ihr Impresario kommt er schnell zu Geld und Ehren - bis er infolge kleinerer Unregelmässigkeiten im Gefängnis landet. Nach seiner Entlassung sucht er in einem verlassenen Tempel Zuflucht, und im Handumdrehen wird er - hätte er’s selbst gedacht? - zum Guru des Dorfes. Er gibt gute Ratschläge, geistliche Unterweisung und nimmt gutes Essen. Bald wird er als Heiliger verehrt. Was so erfreulich beginnt, wird schließlich gefährlich: Als die Dürre ausbricht, erwartet die Dorfgemeinschaft von ihrem Swami, dass er durch Fasten und Gebete, ja sogar echtes Märtyrertum die Regengötter umstimmt.
Reifeprüfung
- 199pages
- 7 heures de lecture
Romány indického autora. Dej sa odohráva v exotickom prostredí južnej Indie a zobrazujú život ženy v tejto krajine, kde vládne rozdelenie spoločnosti na kasty.

























