Books by vikram seth

The poets translated here???Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu???are among the greatest literary figures of China, or indeed the world. Responding differently to their common times, these three poets of a single generation crystallize the immense variety of China and the Chinese poetic tradition and, across a distance of twelve hundred years, move the reader as it is rare for every poetry to do. ...Read More »

The great California novel has been written, in verse (and why not): The Golden Gate gives great joy' ???Gore Vidal 'A new star in the literary firmament ??? it outshines in brilliance anything that I have seen in half-a-century of star-spotting ??? Seth has the stuff that Nobel laureates are made of' ???Khushwant Singh, Illustrated Weekly of India 'A tour de force of rhyme and rea... ...Read More »

Of the ten fables told here, two come from India, two from China, two from Greece, two from the Ukraine, and two, as the author puts it, ???came directly to me from the land of Gup.??? This is a book that displays the astonishing versatility of the poet who gave us The Golden Gate and All You Who Sleep Tonight. The flair and delight of Beastly Tales from Here and There is proof that Vikram Seth ca... ...Read More »

The fictitious city of Brahmpur in the fictitious state of Purva Pradesh, with its fair mix of Hindus and Muslims, is the reflection of a north Indian city, like Lucknow, famous for it s Nawabi heritage. Purva in many Indian languages means North or Uttar, so Purva Pradesh is really a reference to Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. The backdrop of real events and locations in post Independence... ...Read More »

A delicate and moving love story, both intricate and intimate, rich with music, art, humour and emotion. ...Read More »

The three T'ang dynasty poets translated here are among the greatest literary figures of China, or indeed the world.Responding differently to their common times, Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu crystallize the immense variety of China and the Chinese poetic tradition and, across a distance of twelve hundred years, move the reader as it is rare for even poetry to do. ...Read More »

A retelling of the ancient Greek legend of a young Corinthian musician who, having won a gold prize for his singing, is thrown overboard by greedy sailors and befriends a dolphin who becomes his rescuer and protector. ...Read More »

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Arion and the Dolphin is an opera in nine scenes for professionals and community performers. The libretto is by Vikram Seth and the music is composed by Alec Roth. Recounted with Seth's inimitable charm, it is the story of Arion, a young musician at the court of Periander in Corinth. Thrown overboard on his return from a musical contest in Sicily, Arion is saved and befriended by a dolphin. Wr... ...Read More »

In this collection of poems, his first book since The Golden Gate, the best-selling novel in verse, Vikram Seth's marvellous facility with language is once again displayed to full effect. But beyond this, he demonstrates a new range, perhaps best exemplified in the second section 'In Other Voices', where he relives the experience of othersa Nazi concentration camp commandant, the poet ... ...Read More »

In this new edition of Mappings , Vikram Seth's first book of poems and one that has long been out of print, the reader is introduced to work written in the author's twenties, when he was a student in England and later, California. More immediate if less polished than his later work, these poems enchant and impress with their classical learning, wit, perceptiveness and lyricismall facets o... ...Read More »

Written in verse, this was Vikram Seth's first novel. Set in the 1980s, in the affluence and sunshine of California's silicon valley, it is the story of twenty-somethings looking for love, pleasure and the meaning of life. ...Read More »

Written in verse, this was Vikram Seth's first novel. Set in the 1980s, in the affluence and sunshine of California's silicon valley, it is the story of twenty-somethings looking for love, pleasure and the meaning of life.Can 690 sonnets, rhyming a-b-a-b-c-c-d-d-e-f-f-e-g-g, be a novel? Definitely! First published in 1986 and still fresh (the sole sign of its publication date being the frequent ... ...Read More »

Two Lives weaves together two extraordinary stories that comprise one astonishing love affair: that of Vikram's great-uncle Shanti, brought up in India and sent in the 1930s to Berlin to study dentistry, and that of his great-aunt Henny, whose German-Jewish family took Shanti in as a lodger. When Henny fled to England just before the war, she was met by the only person she knew in the co... ...Read More »