A Study Guide for R. K. Narayan's "An Astrologer's Day"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for R. K. Narayan's "An Astrologer's Day," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literature of Developing Nations for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literature of Developing Nations For Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Nov 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535818155

Book preview

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An Astrologer’s Day

R. K. Narayan

1947

Introduction

An Astrologer’s Day was first published in the newspaper The Hindu and then was made the title story of a collection of short stories which appeared in 1947—the year that India gained its independence. R. K. Narayan’s first collection of short stories, entitled Malgudi Days, appeared in 1941. Two other collections followed quickly: Dodu and Other Stories in 1943 and Cyclone and Other Stories in 1944. By the time this collection was published, he was already a well-known novelist, both in India and the West. The endorsement given by the eminent British novelist Graham Greene, who wrote an introduction to Narayan’s novel The Financial Expert (1952), made a great deal of difference to his popularity in the West. By the 1950s he was known as one of the three major writers of India, the other two being Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand. An Astrologer’s Day remains a major work in his corpus and displays all the characteristics associated with his writing. Narayan’s sense of irony, his deep religious sensibility, his humor, his consciousness of the significance of everyday occurrences, and his belief in a Hindu vision of life are all revealed in this