Samaresh Basu Rachanabali 14 [Hardcover]

Someone once said that Samresh Basu was the "Prince of Bengali literature." Critics may consider this statement an exaggeration, but can we deny the fact that he was a colossal talent in literature, much like a towering tree in a forest? With a spirit of struggle to turn adversity into opportunity, he rose from humble beginnings to the heights of fame and recognition. Just as his literature veered through various themes and genres like a flowing river, his life, too, followed an eclectic path, spreading the colors of life wherever he went.

Samresh never adhered to any rigid moralities or ideals about life. In his way of living and in his approach to survival, he was completely unique. Life and literature became one for him, which is why there was no falseness in his creations. He himself wrote, "Whatever debt literature has, it owes to life. Life is greater than literature, and a writer doesn't have to practice deeply for this truth; it is always very much alive." The flesh-and-blood men and women, connected to the earth in every sense, are what appeared in the tug of war of his literature. He never excluded anyone, never turned anyone away. He trusted physical relationships to find the depths of human nature. As a result, he was often misunderstood.

Samresh believed that to truly grasp life, one couldn’t just be a life artist; one had to be a life hunter. He seemed to embody both. His literary career began with "Noyonpurer Mati", though his first published novel was "Uttorang". This fourteenth volume includes eight of his novels—"Tin Purush", "Abhigyan", "Jabab", "Uddhar", "Bibekban", "Bhiru", "Prakriti", and "Rani'r Bazar". Additionally, it contains a collection of short stories. Through these significant works, the author presents a complete and varied expression of his experiences with middle-class life. In the preface to this volume, Professor Saroj Bandopadhyay offers an exceptional analysis of this identity.