Tales, Translations, Trajectories: Literary and Linguistic Journeys in South Asia and Beyond

Tales, Translations, Trajectories: Literary and Linguistic Journeys in South Asia and Beyond is a collection of the late Simon Digby's penetrating and revelatory essays on broadly literary topics.Beginning with a substantial piece on the 'Indian making' of Richard Burton as an Arabist-on which Digby lectured when he was awarded the Burton Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1999-subsequent chapters explore connected themes through the Arabian Nights and related tales in the Indo-Persian tradition. The second section focusses on another of his great passions-'wonder tales'-and includes a wholly original study of the north Indian kissa tradition and the Nepali Madhumālatī.The final section focusses on Rudyard Kipling, Kim, and other lesser known but inter-connected colonial-era stories of 'the little boy lost', including missionary tracts. These probing, erudite, and in many cases never-before published essays make for essential and lively reading for anyone interested in the multi-lingual and interconnected literary worlds of South Asia. Read more