The Flame of the Forest

This pseudo-autobiographical novel, published in 1955, is largely set in Kolkata. The narrator has left university and is looking for work; among his jobs is contributing to an American-style weekly called Life in Technikolor. At the same time, he's pursuing an interest in Myna, a dancing girl termed ‘the Flame of the Forest’. He is torn between urban modernity with international culture and the rural traditional culture. This traditional India is impersonated by Myna; she attracts him away from Western intellect and towards mystery and myth.

The author, Sudhindra N. Ghose (born 30 July 1899), grew up in West Bengal. After studying at the University of Calcutta, he moved to Europe to study for a doctorate at the University of Strasbourg. He subsequently was a research scholar in universities in England, France, Germany and Switzerland. Alongside his studies, he served as a foreign correspondent for The Hindu newspaper from 1924. In 1931, he joined the information secretariat of the League of Nations. He fled to England with his Jewish partner in 1940 and lived there until 1957. Though he spent his entire writing career outside of India, all of his books were set in his home country. He is best remembered for his tetralogy of autobiographical fiction comprising And Gazelles Leaping (1949), Cradle of the Clouds (1951), The Vermilion Boat (1953) and The Flame of the Forest (1955). R.K. Narayan regarded the quartet as an allegorical work; a “20th-century Pilgrim's Progress”.

Myna, one of the central character's of the novel, believes that “no one dies... save on his own choice and in his own time”. “Only when a man supplicates for death then alone does he receive the visitation of Death’s messenger. And he must call out for his own dissolution not once, nor twice, but three times.“ In her mind, “death... comes to him as a solace, a benediction to him and his relations.” This prompted me to think of wounded soldiers on the battlefield who plead for death.