My Life and Times

A unique 'autobiography'of one of the greatest storytellers of our times, Munshi Premchand, recreated from his works by the man regarded as 'Premchand's Boswell', Madan Gopal. Often compared to Gorky and Tolstoy, Premchand was not only a versatile writer of short stories, novels, dramas and essays, but also played an active role in the country's freedom movement. His stories took birth from the lives of the common people, their vicissitudes and deprivations, as well as their small joys and victories. Premchand rebelled against narrow religious bigotry and, in fighting it through his writing, he imbued a whole generation with the idea of a new social order of justice and equality. The author, Madan Gopal, has based his narrative on a study of almost everything of consequence written by or on Premchand in Hindi and Urdu, including numerous unpublished letters written by and to Premchand, which provide an intimate knowledge of the man, the writer, and the thinker. Madan Gopal's deep study of the writer whom he reveres has enabled him to tell the story of his life almost as the master storyteller would have told it himself. For all aficionados of Munshi Premchand, this is a book that must find a place on their shelves.