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Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 11: Next Sunday by R K Narayan

Unit 11: Next Sunday by R K Narayan Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
11.1 About the Author

11.2 Writing Style
11.3 Legacy
11.4 Adaptations
11.5 Division of Essays
11.5.1 Early Essays
11.5.2 Next Sunday
11.5.3 Middle Period Essays

11.6 Summary
11.7 Keywords
11.8 Review Questions
11.9 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

Know about the life and times of R K Narayan
Understand the writing style of R K Narayan
Critically analyse ‘Next Sunday’

Introduction

R K Narayan is the grand old man of Indian fiction. Besides fiction, he was also a good non-fictional
essayist. That’s why he won the first Indian Sahitya Akademi Award. All his books of fiction and
non-fiction are excellent and must read by anybody who can read English. His language is very
lucid and transparent. He writes for children and adults. His career spanned seven long and
illustrious decades from the 1930s to the 1990s. As our study of paper is restricted to only
R K Narayan as a non-fictional essayist, it is better to deal with his essays instead of novels and
short stories. Almost throughout his career, R K Narayan wrote non-fictional pieces/essays.
They were written at various times, which indicated his growth of mind as a writer like William
Wordsworth. Starting with pieces written as a weekly contribution to the ‘Hindu’ in the late
1930s, Narayan’s interest in the short form led him to comment, over the next few decades, on
just about every aspect of the world around him that held his interest.

11.1 About the Author

R K Narayan’s novels are like a box of Indian sweets: a highly coloured container conceals a
range of delectable treats, all different in a subtle way, but each one clearly from the same place.

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