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AjoyBatta, Lovely Professional University Unit 13: Short Story: R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi Days

Unit 13: Short Story: R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi Days Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction

13.1 Short Story: R.K. Narayan’s ‘‘Malgudi Days’’
13.2 Summary
13.3 Keywords
13.4 Review Questions

13.5 Further Readings
Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Know the History of R.K. Narayan
• Know the summary of “Malgudi Days”

• Understand all 32 short stories of Narayan.

Introduction

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906–13 May 2001), shortened from Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer
Narayanaswami was an Indian author whose works of fiction include a series of books about
people and their interactions in an imagined town in India called Malgudi. He is one of three
leading figures of early Indian literature in English, along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.
He is credited with bringing Indian literature in English to the rest of the world, and is
regarded as one of India’s greatest English language novelists.
Malgudi Days is a collection of 32 short stories written by R.K. Narayan. The stories are set
in the imaginary small town of Malgudi situated on the banks of river Sarayu. On the location
of this mythical town, the author has the following to say in the introduction of the book.

13.1 Short Story: R.K. Narayan’s “Malgudi Days”

I have named this volume Malgudi Days in order to give it a plausible geographical status.
I am often asked, “Where is Malgudi?” All I can say is that it is imaginary and not to be found
on any map (although the University of Chicago Press has published a literary atlas with a
map of India indicating the location of Malgudi). If I explain that Malgudi is a small town in
South India I shall only be expressing a half-truth, for the characteristics of Malgudi seem to
me universal.

I have to add that even the towns in India have changed a lot since the days Narayan seem
to be describing in the book. I can see that the book was first published in 1983 and some of
the stories have a feel of an earlier era. They give you a feel of the times when people mingle

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