13 APRIL 1929, Page 43

RAJANI. By Bankin Chandra Chatterji. (Calcutta Tlie Bocik Company)-This simple,

yet subtle, story by a friiiidife' Bengali author describes how Rajani, a blind flower girl of great beauty but of supposedly low origin, falls in love, through his voice and touch, with Sachindra, a high-caste patron. The tale is told partly in Rajani's own words and partly through the narratives of various other characters who help her, by deliberate or accidental means, to win lisr apparently hopeless desire. The translator says that it is impossible in English to do justice to the original version. Even so, this little book contains much sensitive and beautiful writing, and the reactions of the Oriental mind (so different from what those of Western folk would be in similar circum- stances) are fascinating to follow. Particularly impressive is Amarnath, who, with nothing more to sustain him than a belief in fate and in sorrow as the one ultimate fact of life,

makes so magnificent a renunciation. .