India’s greatest poet of modern times, Nobel Prize-winning author Rabindranath Tagore was a philosopher, a visionary and a storyteller par excellence. His short, lyrical prose fables, set in a generic fairyland or in everyday locales, are philosophical excursions across magical landscapes that speak to the imaginative child in every reader.
The pages of The Prince and Other Modern Fables are full of insightful little stories that reveal the simple truth about life. There is the story of a little boy who has lost his mother, of a tribal girl who is mistaken for a fairy, of a jester who watches a king fight his battles from the sidelines, of a young man who tries to come to terms with his first heartache, and of a modern-day prince who is trying to eke out a living in the unforgiving city. Asking questions that we usually don’t stop to ask ourselves, and often coming up with answers that are surprising in their simplicity, every story sparkles with insights on the human condition, and remains etched in the mind long afterwards.
Now available in a lucid and vibrant translation, this classic collection is sure to enchant modern readers who might never have encountered it before.