R. K. Narayan(1906 — 2001)
R. K. Narayan
Inde, Raj britannique
6 min read
Indian novelist writing in English, one of the greatest writers of twentieth-century India. He created the imaginary town of Malgudi, the setting for most of his works, where he portrays the everyday life of South India with tenderness and irony.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born in 1906 in Madras (now Chennai), in southern India
- Published his first novel, Swami and Friends, in 1935, launching the Malgudi cycle
- Won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958 for The Guide
- Encouraged early in his career by the British writer Graham Greene, who helped him get published
- Died in 2001 in Chennai, after a major body of novels and short stories
Works & Achievements
Narayan's first novel: through the young schoolboy Swami, he invents the town of Malgudi, which would become the setting for all his work.
A coming-of-age novel following a young man through his studies, love, and spiritual quest in South India.
A largely autobiographical novel marked by the death of his wife; one of his most moving books.
A collection of short stories depicting the everyday life and ordinary people of Malgudi, later adapted for Indian television.
A bittersweet satire of the rise and fall of a Malgudi moneylender.
His most famous novel, awarded the Sahitya Akademi prize and adapted for film: the story of a tour guide who reluctantly becomes a holy man.
A condensed and accessible version of the great Indian epic, through which Narayan passes on India's mythological heritage.
A memoir in which he recounts his life, the birth of Malgudi, and his beginnings as a writer.
Anecdotes
When R. K. Narayan, a young unknown, sent the manuscript of his first novel to England, it happened to land in the hands of the famous writer Graham Greene. Enthusiastic, Greene recommended it to a publisher and advised the author to shorten his very long name, Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanaswami, to “R. K. Narayan,” easier for English readers to remember.
Narayan used to say that the town of Malgudi had “appeared” to him all at once. One day in September 1930, chosen as an auspicious day by his grandmother, he bought a notebook and, as he was wondering what to write, he saw a little railway station with its banyan tree and its stationmaster spring up in his imagination: Malgudi was born, and it would serve as the setting for almost all of his work.
The death of his young wife Rajam, taken by typhoid in 1939, deeply shattered him. He turned this grief into literature in *The English Teacher*, a largely autobiographical novel, and recounted in his memoirs his attempts to “communicate” with her, a sign of the sorrow that haunted him for a long time.
His younger brother, R. K. Laxman, became the most famous newspaper cartoonist in India, creator of the character of the “Common Man.” The two brothers collaborated: Laxman illustrated several of Narayan's short stories, blending the humor of the pencil with that of the pen.
His best-known novel, *The Guide* (1958), was an immense success: awarded the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Prize, it was adapted into a hit film in Hindi and even staged on Broadway. Narayan was considered several times for the Nobel Prize and was appointed in 1989 to the upper house of the Indian Parliament.
Primary Sources
While I was wondering what to write, Malgudi, with its small railway station, sprang into my mind.
It was Monday morning. Swaminathan was reluctant to open his eyes. He considered Monday specially unpleasant in the calendar.
Without him I could never have known what it is like to be Indian.
Raju welcomed the intrusion — something to relieve the loneliness of the place.
Key Places
City in southern India where Narayan was born in 1906 and where he died in 2001. He spent part of his childhood there at his grandmother's home.
City where Narayan lived most of his adult life and wrote the majority of his novels. Its streets and inhabitants were a major inspiration for the imaginary Malgudi.
Institution where Narayan continued his studies and earned his university degree. His father ran the attached secondary school there.
Thanks to a Rockefeller Foundation grant, Narayan traveled across the United States in 1956, a stay that fed into his travel journal *My Dateless Diary*.
