প্রেমেন্দ্র মিত্রের সমস্ত গল্প ১

by Premendra Mitra, Ashis Pathak (Editor)

640 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2015

About the author

Premendra Mitra (Bangla: প্রেমেন্দ্র মিত্র) was a renowned Bengali poet, novelist, short story writer and film director. He was also an author of Bengali science fiction and thrillers.

His short stories were well-structured and innovative, and encompassed the diverse to the divergent in urban Indian society. The themes of poverty, degradation, caste, the intermittent conflict between religion and rationality and themes of the rural-urban divide are a thematically occurring refrain in much of his work. He experimented with the stylistic nuances of Bengali prose and tried to offer alternative linguistic parameters to the high-class elite prosaic Bengali language. It was basically an effort to make the Bengali literature free from softness, excessive romance and use of old style of writing which were prevalent in older writings.

Reviews

[K Basu · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review is about the First and Second Volumes of "Premendra Mitrer Somosto Golpo (প্রেমেন্দ্র মিত্রের সমস্ত গল্প)" (A Collection of Stories by Premendra Mitra), Edited by Sri Ashis pathak, published by Dey's Publishing.

Volume 1 contains 71 stories while volume 2 has 74. Both volumes cost 1000 INR together. Purchased separately, each costs 600 INR.

Quality of Stories = 5 star,

Quality of book (Editorial work, proofreading etc.) = 0 star.

The collected short fictions of Sri Premendra Mitra, rightly called one of the Giants of Bengali Short Story writers was made available through this work, an like many other "Premen Mittir" fans, I was elated to hear the news of such a publication. But reading these volumes has been an absolutely horrifying experience. I cannot imagine how a much renowned publisher like Dey's Publishing has brought out a book in this state. Let me try to sum up the shortfalls of this abysmal production.

1. Both these volumes are riddled with hundreds of typographical errors, literally. I have read both books from cover to cover, halfway through the first volume I got myself a pencil and started to correct the printing mistakes and then only the full extent of the folly dawned to me. There are pages in these volumes where you can spot up to four typos. They are everywhere, and some words are almost never printed right, eg. ক্ষমতা

2. On multiple occasions (and this is an issue that I've spotted in the Second Volume only) there are complete repetition of lines, duplicate lines printed subsequently.

3. Though the source texts of many stories are not with me, I strongly suspect that there are instances of missing lines. One such missing text I can confirm in the classic "তেলেনাপোতা আবিষ্কার", collected in volume 1, a whole line has disappeared.

4. Quotation marks have gone haywire. Sometimes they are entirely absent, the dialogues hanging in perpetual limbo. Punctuation marks, like commas, are often missing.

5. And last, but most definitely not the least, is the issue of duplicate stories. I have identified 6 stories which have their identical counterparts printed under some other title. It may so happen, and it seems very possible to me, that many different short collections (previously published by several local publishers) have featured these same stories separately, the titles being different. When compiling such a large collection, the editor must therefore be on a constant lookout for such duplications. This Sri Pathak has completely failed to do and the duplicate stories have found their way in. Hilariously, the second volume houses three such duplicate stories, along with the originals. The same volume also contains the other three duplicates, the originals compiled in Volume 1. I have also identified stories which have the exact same theme and mostly similar presentation, only difference being in the arrangements of events and different names of the same characters in different stories. This has happened twice. These, though not strictly cases of duplications, should have been mentioned in the editor's introduction.

In conclusion, this is a most appalling example of editorial work. No proofreading, no editorial surveillance. The editor, who also bears the nom de guerre বইপোকা when writing as a critic, in his editorial column proclaims to be "সর্বাঙ্গীণ ত্রুটিহীনতার পথের অনন্ত যাত্রী" (Traveller of the endless road to absolute perfectness). Sadly, I cannot disagree more after reading these two volumes. If this is the example of the perfectness Sri Pathak seeks, then I must conclude it is a path poorly chosen. And the fact that a famous publishing house like Dey's Publihsing has allowed this to come in the market in its current shoddy state, I think it speaks volumes about the present scenario of big house publishers in Bengal. If the editor and the publisher have any semblance of modesty left, they should immediately recall all the volumes of the current edition, issue an apology to all the buyers, and publish a second, corrected edition as soon as possible. The present one is nothing but a blatant insult to the beautiful craft of Sri Premendra Mitra.

[Ranendu Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

প্রেমেন্দ্র মিত্র বলা চলে আজ আমাদের মনে আছেন শুধু ঘনাদার মধ্যে দিয়ে। কিন্তু তা ছাড়াও তিনি অনেক গল্প লিখেছেন, সেগুলি আমাদের অগোচরেই থেকে গেছে। আশিস পাঠকের সম্পাদনায় দুই খন্ডে প্রয়াস করা হয়েছে তার সমস্ত গল্প ধরে রাখার।
এটা আমার জন্মদিনের উপহার ও বটে, দাদা দিয়েছে এবারে।

[Shubhankan Das · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is for both the Part I and Part II of the same title:

Life is not always comedy. Life is not always a tragedy also. It's a mixture of happy and sad moments. But don't expect them to come alternatively. Sometimes tragedy is followed by more tragedy, that doesn't mean one should give up hope. Sometimes people just enjoy the small moments of happiness, savor them and be content with it. Not everyone dare to ask for more from life. As complicated as it sounds, most of the time life just goes on. The short stories by Premendra Mitra reminds us of this in almost every story. Life flows like a river. If you only focus on a small part of it you will only find some garbage floating above or some stones blocking the flow of water. They represent the visible failures and obstacles of our life. But they don't represent life. Life is like the water that is constantly moving forward that never stays at the same place and never goes back. After reading most of the stories you will get an unexpected ending, because it's the most non dramatic and anticlimactic ending possible because life is not a drama, and the reality is lot less colourless than portrayed by most writers and poets. And that's what makes the writing style of Premendra Mitra so unique. Writers like Premendra Mitra, Probhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Ashapoorna Devi etc bared reality of the everyday struggle of common man without romanticizing or sophisticating it.
This book is a must read for anyone (Age 13-15+) loving Bengali literature. It also describes the life in 'gram bangla' on the backdrop of 2nd world war in vivid details. Definitely deserves a 5 star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ .