The Home and the World #615868

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the State of Bengal is the cradle of the Indian independence movement against British domination. Nikhil, a mild-mannered and spiritual landowner convinced that the turmoil that is shaking the country can be resolved peacefully, soon sees the tension erupt even within the walls of his palace: when his wife Bimala comes out of the isolation of the gynaecum to meet Sandip, a radical leader ready to use any means to obtain independence, the woman is inevitably attracted by his charisma and his ideas about the future of the country. A dangerous triangle thus emerges, in which the two men, who represent two different ways of interpreting the Indian cause against imperialism, become rivals even in the field of affection. In the meantime, Bimala, who, together with her political conscience, sees her yearning for women's emancipation awaken, will have to try to resolve the apparently irreconcilable opposition between "home and the world". With an elegant and refined prose, the novel sketches a strong female character, involving both emotionally and symbolically. A love story and political novel at the same time, The House and the World is a vivid portrait of the traditions, habits and conflicts that characterized the life of women in Indian society at the beginning of the twentieth century. A film directed by Satyajit Ray was made from this novel, presented at Cannes in 1984 and nominated for the Palme d'Or.
"Tagore is greater than all of us." W.B. Yeats