Vikram Seth(1952 — ?)
Vikram Seth
Inde
5 min read
Vikram Seth is an English-language Indian writer and poet born in 1952. He is world-renowned for his vast novel *A Suitable Boy* (1993), a sweeping portrait of post-independence India. His work blends poetry, the verse novel, and travel writing.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born on 20 June 1952 in Calcutta, India
- Publishes *The Golden Gate* (1986), a novel written entirely in verse
- Publishes *A Suitable Boy* (1993), one of the longest novels in the English language
- Publishes *An Equal Music* (1999), a novel about chamber music
- Winner of numerous literary prizes and a major figure in English-language Indian literature
Works & Achievements
First collection of poems, revealing his taste for rigorous metrical forms.
Account of his journey across Tibet and the Himalayas, awarded the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.
A novel written entirely in sonnets (Onegin stanzas), set in contemporary California.
Collection of animal fables in verse, drawn from several of the world's traditions.
A sweeping portrait of post-independence India, one of the longest novels ever written in English.
A novel about classical musicians in London, a tribute to music and to lost love.
A memoir tracing the lives of his Indian great-uncle and his German Jewish wife, swept up in the history of the twentieth century.
Anecdotes
It was while browsing in a bookshop at Stanford University that Vikram Seth came across a translation of Pushkin's “Eugene Onegin.” Captivated by its sonnet form, he decided to write an entire novel in verse: “The Golden Gate” (1986) is made up of nearly 590 interlocking sonnets.
In 1981, while he was an economics student in China, Seth made his way home by hitchhiking across the Himalayas, crossing Tibet and Nepal. This adventurous journey, very rare for a foreigner at the time, became his travel narrative “From Heaven Lake.”
“A Suitable Boy” (1993) is one of the longest novels ever published in a single volume in English: around 1,349 pages and nearly 600,000 words — a sweeping fresco of 1950s India.
A great admirer of the seventeenth-century English poet George Herbert, Seth bought the Old Rectory of Bemerton, near Salisbury, where the poet had once lived.
In 2006, Seth took a public stand by reading aloud an open letter against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which then criminalized homosexual relations, calling for equal rights.
Primary Sources
"You too will marry a boy I choose," said Mrs Rupa Mehra firmly to her younger daughter.
To make a start more swift than weighty, / Hail Muse. Dear Reader, once upon / A time, say, circa 1980, / There lived a man. His name was John.
All you who sleep tonight / Far from the ones you love, / No hand to left or right, / And emptiness above— / Know that you aren't alone. / The whole world shares your tears.
Key Places
Birthplace of Vikram Seth in 1952, in a newly independent India.
Prestigious Indian boarding school where Seth completed part of his education.
University where Seth studied philosophy, politics, and economics.
Seth pursued a doctorate in economics here; it was here that he conceived “The Golden Gate,” set in the California of Silicon Valley.
Site of his research in China, the starting point of the journey recounted in “From Heaven Lake.”
Seth lives here in the former rectory of the poet George Herbert; he divides his life between England and the Delhi region.
