Hogan, Patrick and Lalita Pandit, eds. Rabindranath Tagore: Universality and Tradition. Teaneck, NJ; Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2003. 304 pp.

This collection provides a lucid introduction for those unfamiliar with Tagore's work, while simultaneously presenting important new scholarship and novel interpretation. Rabindranath Tagore is considered the greatest modern writer of India. He is also one of the great social and political figures in modern Indian history. After he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, Tagore's reputation in the West has been based primarily on his mystical poetry. But beyond poetry, Tagore wrote novels of social realism, treating nationalism, religious intolerance, and violence. He wrote analytic works on social reform, education, and science--even engaging in a brief dialogue with Albert Einstein. Without ignoring religion and mysticism, the essays in this collection concentrate on this "other Tagore." They explicate Tagore's writings in relation to its historical and literary context and, at the same time, draw out those aspects of Tagore's work that continue to bear on contemporary society.

Patrick Colm Hogan is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut. Lalita Pandit is a Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.