Novel
Vasanavantha Pavula saha Kalakanni Pavula
Not translated into English
Isaac de Silva · 1888
Synopsis
Two Christian families live some distance from each other: one is happy, the other wretched, and it is faith that makes the difference. The narrative focuses mainly on the first, that of Charles and Lucy, a young married couple who call each other by their first names, address each other as “beloved” and reproach the Sinhalese husband for treating his wife as a subordinate. Shared episodes link the two households, such as that of the beggar whom one drives away and the other welcomes.
Context
The narrative appeared as a serial from 1866 to 1873 in Ruwan Mal Dama, then in volume form in 1888, in Colombo, from the Ceylon Religious Tract Society; it was reissued in 1893, and a modern edition appeared from Godage in 2009. It aims to win its readers over to Christianity and to the family drawn closely around the couple, against Sinhalese customs. It is more a narrative than a novel, in a tone of controversy, and a Buddhist novelist later answered it with a book arguing the opposite thesis.
Who it is for
An edifying tale in Sinhala, with no French or English translation, of interest to anyone who wants to see the birth of the novel on the island.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the ancestor of the Sinhalese novel, and sometimes as the first novel in the language; important for history rather than for art.
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