Description

In the autumn of 1940, Rabindranath Tagore's short novel The Laboratory was published in the annual magazine brought out by the Bengali newspaper Anandabazar Patrika on the occasion of Durga Puja in Bengal. Radically different from his earlier work, this was Tagore's response to those who criticized him for a perceived lack of modernity in his writings. He died in August, 1941, and The Laboratory was the very last novel he wrote, at the age of 79. This English translation makes the extraordinary, almost uncharacteristic Tagore novel available to readers around the world.