This anthology has been prepared mainly for educational purposes,yet fundamentally it has the aim of all good literature,that is, to delight the readers and expand their understanding in matters of mea and manners, The important authors collected here speak for themselves. Beginning from such masters like Tolstoy and Chekov and through Conan Doyle, O’Henry and Lawrence we come to such perceptive writers like Hemingway and Mansfield. The only Indian who has been chosen to give company to these western authors is R. K. Narayan who not only belongs to our time but is probably one of the finest Indian writers in English.
The period from Tolstoy to R. K.Narayan, that is, from about mid-nineteenth century till today,is roughly the period when the short story has grown and developed as a very poplar as well as a sophisticated art form. Beginning from pioneers like Poe and Chekov to Mansfield and Coppard it is the whole spectrum of life on the one hand and a unique substantiality of the mind on the other which the short story exhibits and communicates.The stories in this anthology exhibit this spectrum and substantiality.
Starting from Tolstoy who asks a fundamental question about how best man can live we come to Narayan who Jaughs at man’s foolishness in trying to provide an identity for himself and to Bradbury who shows man as a victim of what he himself has raised and reared. G. Gillie speaks of ‘close literature’ and ‘unity of mood’ in connection with the short story. The stories here have these twin qualities. In addition, they go beyond to project an attitude of uncertainty and insecurity which will probably always remain with man as long as he continues to live as a sentient being.
Books Info
| Books name | Ten Short Stories |
| Author | Jatindra Mohan Mohanty |
| No Of pages | 115 |
| Publisher | University Press |
| Publication | 1983 |
| Printed At | NA |
| Distributor | NA |
