The Fatal Rumour

Résumé du livre

This is a translation of one of the earliest novels in Tamil, Apattukkitamana Apavatam allatu Kamalambal Carittiram, by B. R. Rajam Aiyar (1872-1898). The plot moves from a village in Tamilnadu across South India to Benares as the novel traces the lives of Muttuswami Aiyar and his wife, Kamalambal, whose contented domestic life is shattered by the gossip and intrigue perpetrated by envious relatives and neighbours. Hailed as one of the best novels ever written in Tamil, it contains sharp observations of folk culture and speech, and presents a valuable portrait of late nineteenth-century India through its details of family life, religious attitudes and social behaviour. Peppered with anecdotes, proverbs and philosophizing, the novel has a rich vein of satire and irony running through it, and conveys the author's Vedantic outlook with passion, wit and simplicity.