Duhkhi Dadiba, athva Parinno Pastavo [Illustrated by M V Dhurandhar]

Dadi Edalji Taraporvala, Duhkhi Dadiba, athva Parinno Pastavo [Despondent Dadiba, or, Parin's Remorse], Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Union Printing Press, 1913

pp. 494 including 25 black and white plates by M V Dhurandhar and text in Gujarati; cloth bound with gilt text on the board and spine

Though for centuries the genres of epic and romance enjoyed great popularity in the Parsi community, exposure to English literature in the nineteenth century created gave rise to the Parsi novel, a genre which, though now mostly carried out in English, continues to enjoy great popularity today. Early Parsi authors like Jehangirh Ardesir Taleyrkhan, B. N. Patel, Navrozji Kekhusru Sethna, Jehangir Behramji Marzban, and Kavasji Dorabji Pande laid the groundwork of Parsi social novels. The most famous Parsi Gujarati novelist was the reformer Kekhusru Navrozji Kabraji, whose novels strongly advocated reform of Parsi domestic life, especially with regard to female education. Kabraji, the founder of the women's magazine Stribodh, was one of the first to bring serialized novels, published in monthly installments to the Gujarati reading public.

Another of the great Parsi novelists was Dadi Edalji Taraporvala (1852-1914), author of the present lot. Taraporvala was the proprietor of the literary magazine Masik Majah (Monthly Merriment). A prolific author of humorous and romantic novels, Taraporvala's Duhkhi Dadiba (Doleful Dadi Darling), Sirinni Kahani athva Anjirbagni Katal (Shirin's Story, or Murder in Anjir Baug), and Adhiri Arnavaz (Anxious Arnavaz), etc., remain a monument of middle and upper class Parsi social life at the turn of the century. Taraporvala, though not a great poet, composed short lyrics under the pen name Diljan, and often included his poetry in his novels. Taraporvala's prose reflects contemporary trends in Gujarati literature at the turn of the century, with a greater preponderance of Sanskrit-derived vocabulary and relatively standardized spelling, yet his dialogues represent learned Parsi speech at the time, full of idiomatic colloquialisms and liberally sprinkled with English phrases. (Source: dansheffield.com)

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