The Rupa Book of Heartwarming Stories
Author: Bond, Ruskin
Year: 2005
[ pp. 170 ]
[ Price: RS. 95.00, US$ 2.44 ]
Ruskin Bond has compiled and edited both these anthologies with his usual panache. 'The Rupa Book of Heartwarming Stories' is a wonderful collection of Stories that pulls at the reader's heartstrings with its character vignettes and lucid narratives. The collection includes stories by well-known writers like Anton Chekhov, O. Henry and Ruskin Bond himself. It also includes literary offerings of unknown but great story-tellers. Bond has with great care picked out stories that are narrated with artless spontaneity and an almost childlike simplicity. And yet, the stories draw the attention of the reader to the basic truths about life, death, life-after-death, faith, etc. Ruskin Bond has with dexterity put together stories where complex concepts are woven into the warp and woof of a simple narrative. This elevates the anthology to a collector's gem. Several stories in this collection have been narrated from a child's perspective and take us back to our own childhood untainted by the cynicism of adults. My Date with Graybeard by Robin Collins is one such story which narrates the tale of a little boy from South Africa who is initiated into hunting at the tender age of eight. The boy decides to hunt and kill a majestic grey bushbuck on his first hunt but the fearless majesty of the buck stops him. "I knew I could not buy the hunter's badge at the price of so much splendor" says the boy, symbolizing the ideals of every young boy. All the stories are delightful in their own individual ways but the two stories that are especially touching are O. Henry's The Last Leaf and That Which Remained by Bartimeus. These are stories that symbolize the restoration of faith in the goodness of human nature.
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