The Novels of Mulk Raj Anand: A Study of His Hero (Hardbound - 2005)

Dr. Mulk Raj Anand, through his rare prolificity, bold experimentation and aesthetic sensibility, has made immense contribution to Indian as well as world literature in English. His choice of unconventional subjects and characters has been determined by his Dickensian humanistic philosophy. He set up new trends by introducing negative hero/anti-hero in his novels. His fictional world is peopled by characters from various strata of society—from the lowest to the highest rungs in the hierarchy. Anand has revealed exceptional psychological insight in the portrayal of these characters who “once were real men and women” and are not mere phantoms of fantasy. However, his otherwise authentic and objective delineation of characters, at places, gets marred when his reformistic vigour supersedes his aesthetic integrity resulting in a serious injury to the integritas, consonantia and claritas—the chief requisites of a work of art.

The present book The Novels of Mulk Raj Anand traces both the strengths and weaknesses of Dr. Anand as a novelist and studies his protagonists in the perspective of other aspects of his novels. It would be highly useful for students, teachers and researchers in the field of English literature.

Neena Arora born and brought up in Punjab, and received her Master’s degree from Doaba College, Jalandhar. She did her M.Phil. from the Regional Centre (Guru Nanak Dev University), Jalandhar, and worked for her dissertation on the topic “Dichotomy between Realism and Propaganda in the Novels of Mulk Raj Anand.” Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar conferred on her Ph.D. degree for her thesis “The Sufferer and the Saviour—the Double Nature of the Anand Hero.”

Neena Arora taught English literature for seven years at Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar. Since 1989 she has been teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate classes at Dyal Singh College, Karnal (Haryana). She is associated with research in Indian writing in English for about two decades.