Selected Short Stories - Premchand

One of the best writter in the history of writers.

His book like Godaan, maansarovar, nirmala, Gaban etc.

when I am reading all this book I feel always happy and excited to read it,

You'll learn our Indian flavour, culture by reading premchandra ji's book

Read it.

This book selected short stories writter by premchand are the great short stories.there are about 300 short stories.many of them are brilliant and some are the masterpeice.I just loved to read premchand stories.if you are a literature lover you should differently read premchands stories.

He is the award winning writter.the language used in this book is simply and easy to understand.the readilibility of this book is great and simple.this book is available anywhere you can find it easily and its cost is also reasonable.stories are close to real worlds life full of emotions and tragedy.

Premchand is considered as the King of stories. And this title was given to him in his life. And selected short stories is the great work of him. He wrote more than 300 stories and all of them are very good. But few are the masterpieces which are compiled as Selected Short Stories of Premchand. These stories leaves long lasting impression on human mind. Kafan and Panch Parmeshwar are wonder itself. Other selected stories of Premchand are very entertaining.

The language used by him is very unique and content of the book is very good. Reading his stories is true joy.

India has many good writers few were exception munshi premchand was only writer who showed the real india through his writing ability.i recommend you please read premchand if you are really literature lover there are many stories that will touch your heart.

Premchand is a very good writer. Their story is heart touching. They wrote story mostly on simple huan life, like jameen ka bhookh. In the story characto's name is also so simple as heera moti. So their story feels as like real story. He is from varanasi district, they passed their life very simple.

Munsi Premchand is the one of the well known figure of Indian Hindi Literature. Well known for his stories and plays like Godan, Namak Ka Daroga, Shroud, Budhi Kaki, Panch Parmeshwar etc. This book is the collection of his selected short stories.

If we talk about his short stories so much of his work is influenced by the real scenario of the poor peoples and low caste peoples before the independence of India.

Caste discrimination was the one of the major issue of that time, still today India is facing this problem of Caste discrimination but that time the situation was much worse. Munsi premchand very carefully point out all the things related to caste discrimination in his play. Many time he mock upper class for it.  This book contain all the major short stories of Premchand. The language of Pemchand plays is very simple and realistic.

Its is a beautiful book containing stories by India's best(according to me) writer and these stories do teach something very important related to life.

1. stories are well written and easy to understood

2. book is affordable and not costly

3. pages and quality is good

4. written by premchand so all stories are very good

5. Good for all age groups, give it to children or elders

6. a good gift option, give it as agift cause it is trulya gem

7. The stories gives best morals

Overall if you want to buy something good to read, go for it.

Prem Chand Chand is the best artist novels because of Premchand has a great experience and a great technique to read articles.

novel which can address brittas leaders and the quality of the sentences is very nice.

it is related to our real life and it is given edjucation how to face the problem which can be observed in our life suddenly occure  so many of the novels here of Premchand and  read many stories of Premchand in my school book.

the story is very interesting and the best novels I think written  by Premchand so I recommend to read unless one time of the novels

I like this novel because of its great content.

I dislike this novel because of some mens arguments.

Munshi Prem Chand is among the best hindi writers. He was a nationalist writer and rejected title of  Rai Bhadur  after coming under influence of Gandhi ji.

Those who have not read him can(and should not) claim to be hindi lovers.

His stories are also based on northern and eastern India-its society, politics and humanity.

This book carries a number of good short stories such as Panch Parameshwar, Kafan, Godan.

Prem Chand has written a number of novels and stories in hindi. His language carries urdu, sanskrit and khadi boli(hindi).

Any wonder, hee has been translated in a number of languages. Many foreign scholars have made him a subject of their research.

Indian King Literature field , with use of very simple words he had created magic in his stories which will make you to finish it in one go. the portrayal of characters, the deepest emotions and the description of day to day little things in the most grand manner I don't think anyone can do this by use of just a pen and piece of paper.

A must buy book for every novel enthusiast or any one who likes to read stories with sense as every story presents the face of True India which lies in its villages and not in the metro cities.

The main characteristic of Premchand's writings is his interesting story-telling and use of simple language. His novels describe the problems of the urban middle-class. He avoided the use of highly Sanskritized Hindi(as was the common practice among Hindi writers), but rather he used the dialect of the common people.

Premchand called literature a work that expresses the truths and experiences of life impressively. Presiding over the Progressive Writers' Conference in Lucknow in 1936, he said that attaching the word "Progressive" to writer was redundant, because "A writer or an artist is progressive by nature, if this was not his/her nature, he/she would not be a writer at all."

Before Premchand, Hindi literature was confined to the raja-rani(king and queen) tales, the stories of magical powers and other such escapist fantasies. It was flying in the sky of fantasy, until Premchand brought it on the grounds of reality. Premchand wrote on the realistic issues of the day - communalism, corruption, zamindari, debt, poverty, colonialism etc.

Some criticize Premchand's writings as full of too many deaths and too much of misery. They believe Premchand does not stand anywhere near contemporary literary giants of India - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore. But it should be noted, that many of Premchand's stories were influenced by his own experiences with poverty and misery. His stories represented the ordinary Indian people as they were, without any embellishments. Unlike many other contemporary writers, his works didn't have any "hero" or "Mr. Nice" - they described people as they are.

Premchand needs no introduction to patrons of Hindi/ Urdu Literature. His Godan, Karma bhumi, Premashram, Ghaban, Nirmala etc., are classic novels painting different vistas of the multifarious Indian society of early twentieth century and can be best described as “a true description of an epoch.” His short stories also echoed the contemporary times through the real flesh and blood characters ranging from khadi-clad satyagrahis to ordinary peasants, men & women and even animals. In this translated collection published by Crest Publishing House - New Delhi, there are 20 such beautiful short stories. These stories are maximum 4-5 pages each in length but thrive with contemporary themes and plausible plots, all taken from real life.

“An ideal short story, must throw light on some aspect of life; it must examine critically, and courageously, the conventions of society; it must deepen the inherent instinct in man for the good, the true and the beautiful; it must quicken his sense of curiosity and must be based on a psychological truth” – Premchand

In “The secret of culture”, the author ridicules the prevailing two-facedness of people and the justice system. A poor mali - Damri, as a punishment for allowing his hungry bullocks to graze in the neighbouring fields, is sentenced to rigorous imprisonment by his own master - Rai Ratan Kishore that shouts hoarse about his virtue of impartial judgment. However, the same Rai Ratan on the very same day, bails out a rich man convicted of murder after accepting bribes through the lady of the house.

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The story of Dukhi - the tanner, is even more heartrending where he breathes his last due to exhaustion of overworking at a miserly Panditji’s place. The corpse of Dukhi is abandoned by both - the upper and lower class - people.. since pious Brahmins won’t “pollute” themselves by passing the side of a tanner’s body and the tanner community stays away for the fear of police harassment. The decomposing body is then dragged and flung into the far off fields outside the village by the Panditji himself who later undergoes rigorous cleansing process while the “Salvation” for Dukhia’s life of devotion, service and faith is through the vultures and jackals that gather around the carcass.

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If the above 2 tales speak about society’s class and caste discrimination respectively, the other story ”Son-in-law” shows how familiarity breeds contempt within a household. Haridhan has severed all connections from his natal home to become ’ghar jamai’ to his affluent in-laws. But over a period of time, all members of the house including his wife Gumani shower him with scorn & insolence turning blind eye for his hard toiling. Haridhan realizes his folly and returns back home to his stepmother and brothers who welcome him with open arms. From a beggar at in-law’s place he is now elevated to the position of breadwinner of the family.

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The clear advantage and favoritism English has over local languages and the associated false prestige with it is finely pointed out in ”The Poet.” It is a sorry tale of a poverty stricken Hazrat Qumer and his devoted wife Sakina. Qumer gets an invitation from the local Raja sahib to recite his poetry in one of the evening parties. But he is ridiculed by one and all of the elite society for not knowing/ writing in English and his compositions in mother tongue are harshly abased.

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”Box of Jewels” is all about overpowering greed and ensuing pinpricks of the scruples. Chander Prakash, a private tutor to a Thakur’s son, steals a box of jewels from his benefactor’s place in one of those weaker moments. The Thakur ignorant of this misdeed still places implicit confidence in Prakash, keeps helping him all through and also gets him a job. Prakash’s goading conscience is struck even more fiercely when his wife Champa, suspecting his foul play, does not approve of his ways and behaves indifferently. Thoroughly ashamed of himself and sorry for his crude act, Prakash finally replaces the box and breathes a sigh of relief.

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The other stories are equally marvelous and have something or the other to deliver. “The Child” contrasts the middleclass morality of narrow-minded persons to that of courage, sincerity and goodness in Gangu who accepts a widow for wife and her new born as his own child. “The Wristwatch” and “Lottery” speak all about money over matters while “Navier” is a story of penniless pauper turning into a holy man. There is also a short autobiographical composition of Premchand’s childhood illustrating the warm and respectful relationship he shared with his “Elder Brother.”

“The majority of my characters are drawn from real life, though they are sufficiently veiled. Unless a character has some basis in reality, it’s shadowy, uncertain and unconvincing” – Premchand

The beauty of Premchand’s writing is the effective way he brings forth the exquisiteness of the langsyne through his simplistic style.. say, by mere mentions of mundane things like hookah (smoking pipe), achkan (long coat), pau/ seer (quarter of a kg/ litre), biswas, bighas (measurement of land) or festivities like Satya Narain Katha, Janam Ashtami, Durga path etc. The terms of address like Panditji, Thakurain, Durvan, Dhobi, Mali, Maharaj so on, succinctly recreates the then existing social stratification. Revisiting those times, you are rapt with officers and authorities like Daroga sahib, Munimji, Zamindar, Naib Tehsildar, Raja Sahib and other Babujis as much as you are enthralled by the uncanny ways of Babajis, Sadhu Maharajs and Krantikaaris too.

Though I would have appreciated reading this one in Hindi (as translations cannot bring forth the precise flavour as that of the original work, imho) it still makes for a very good reading and aptly conveys across the intended points. Last few pages of dedication “Premchand – A critical appreciation” by Madan Gopal beautifully summarizes the times, life and works of Premchand.