The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poison Tree, by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

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Title: The Poison Tree
A Tale of Hindu Life in Bengal

Author: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

Translator: Miriam S. Knight

Release Date: January 4, 2006 [EBook #17455]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE POISON TREE

A Tale of Hindu Life in Bengal

BY

BANKIM CHANDRA CHATTERJEE

TRANSLATED BY

MIRIAM S. KNIGHT

WITH A PREFACE BY

EDWIN ARNOLD, C.S.I.

London
T. FISHER UNWIN
26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1884

PREFACE

I had been asked by the accomplished lady who has translated the
subjoined story to introduce it with a few words of comment to the
English public. For that purpose I commenced the perusal of the proof
sheets; but soon found that what was begun as a literary task became a
real and singular pleasure, by reason of the author's vivid narrative,
his skill in delineating character, and, beyond all, the striking and
faithful pictures of Indian life with which his tale is filled. Nor do
these qualities suffer, beyond what is always inevitable, in the
transfer of the novel from its original Bengali to English. Five
years ago, Sir William Herschel, of the Bengal Civil Service, had the
intention of translating this _Bisha Briksha_; but surrendered the
task, with the author's full consent, to Mrs. Knight, who has here
performed it with very remarkable skill and success. To accomplish
that, more was wanted than a competent knowledge of the language of
the original and a