J.P. Tripathi worked in D.A.V. P.G., College, Azamgarh upto 1974. Thereafter he worked in Gorakhpur University from 1974 to 1998 and became Reader and Head of English Department and retired as Professor of English. He was awarded Ph.D. degree on "Ernest Hemingway: A Study in His Evolution" in 1972 by Gorakhpur University. His articles on British, American and Indo-English literature have been published in India and abroad. He has participated in literary conferences and seminars.
Raja Rao has a unique place in the field of Indo-English Literature. As a conscious and conscientious artist, he has produced five novels and three volumes of short stories, and through them he has carved a permanent niche for himself in the annals of Indian English fiction of today. He is a great novelist embodying the philosophy of Indian sages and saints and has imbibed the Indian mythical and legendary tradition to the full. Raja Rao's novels have revealed to the world certain facets of Indian life and philosophy not expressed by anybody else. Thus, he has brought an honour and a recognition for India abroad. The book RAJA RAO: The Fictionist which is a critical study of Raja Rao's fictional works comprehensively deals with the various facets of Raja Rao's art and mind in a span of eight chapters. The first chapter is introductory in nature, while the second one is on Rao's short stories. The third chapter handles plot, theme, emotion and narrative technique in his novels; the fourth treats his art of characterization; the fifth dwells on his language and style; the sixth considers his use of images and symbols; and the seventh takes into account his vision of life or his philosophical outlook upon life. The eighth chapter draws conclusions. This is a very insightful critical study of Raja Rao-the fruit of Author's long years of reading and research-and does full justice to this great novelist of our day.p>
Acknowledgements are due to Dr. A.N. Dwivedi, Professor of English, Allahabad University, and to our publishers for encouragement to prepare this work. Acknowledgements are also due to the Sahitya Akademi Library for facilitating consultation of books, and thanks are due to Raja Rao and his critics for brief quotations from their works used in this book.
Raja Rao, a contemporary Indian-English novelist, is deemed as one of 'the Big Three'-the other two being Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan-and the most philosophical one. If Anand is a socialistic writer and Narayan an artistic author, Raja Rao is regarded as a philosophical-cum metaphysical novelist. Rao continues to live in the West, presently in the U.S.A., and yet he has been highlighting India's rich religious, spiritual and cultural heritage through his thought-provoking writings. Prof. C.D. Narasimhaiah correctly states that if Indian writing in English has to survive, it has to go the Raja Rao way. As a conscious and conscientious artist, Raja Rao has produced five novels and three volumes of short stories, and through them he has carved a permanent niche for himself in the annals of Indian English fiction of today. He is a novelist who is well-versed in India's hoary past, in her customs and traditions, in her myths and legends, in her religious and philosophical systems. He inspires us to undertake inner explorations (not external probings as many other novelists strive to do), and his two highly thoughtful novels-The Serpent and the Rope (1962) and The Chessmaster and His Moves (1987)-bear it out. He builds his artistic edifice on the solid base of Indian religions and philosophies, and thereby becomes an acknowledged ambassador of our land and culture in the West. But this has also led to a misunderstanding of Raja Rao's mind and art. Some readers and scholars think that Raja Rao as a novelist is cut off from the reality of life, turning him to inward explorations. Another charge levelled against him is that he lacks 'formal values' or that he suffers from 'formlessness' as the noted novelist Mulk Raj Anand puts it, and that it is particularly so after Kanthapura (1938). The truth, however, is that after Kanthapura Raja Rao opts for what we call 'high seriousness' in the choice of his subject and its treatment, and not for the rough and tumble of the freedom fight under the dynamic leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Raja Rao knows well how to 'trim his sail' to adjust to the changing gale. A third charge against Raja Rao is that he has lived too long in the West and hence he is an expatriate writer who does not enter deep into the central Indian ethos or her engaging concerns like corruption and exploitation, squalor and poverty, nepotism and red-tapism. But if we read his works like The Cat and Shakespeare (1965) and Comrade Kirrilov (1976), we realise that Raja Rao is quite alive to the burning problems of our country. This critical study of Raja Rao and his fictional works by Prof. J.P. Tripathi, a seasoned teacher of English Literature, comprehensively deals with the various facets of Raja Rao's art and mind in a span of eight Chapters. Evidently, the first Chapter is introductory in nature, while the second one is on Rao's short stories. The third Chapter handles plot, theme, emotion and narrative technique in his novels; the fourth treats his art of characterization; the fifth dwells on his language and style; the sixth considers his use of images and symbols; and the seventh takes into account his vision of life or his philosophical outlook upon life. The eighth and last Chapter draws conclusions at the close of the book. I must hasten to add that this is a very insightful critical study of Raja Rao- the fruit of Tripathi's long years of reading and research-and does full justice to this great novelist of our day.
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