Bengali Prose Style 1800-1857: Ramtanu Lahiri Fellowship Lectures for the Year 1919-1920

During a little more than a century that commenced from 1800 A. D., Bengali prose has made an astonishing progress. The wonderful assimilation of the classical element in Vidyasagar's style, perfected by the perennial flow of his emotional sweetness, the gorgeous sweep of Bankim's prose enlivened by a genial poetic enthusiasm, the superior word-painting of Ravindranath,—his style, setting up a new ideal of art in our letters, aud, last though not least, Sarat Chandra's rich colloquial style, full of the charm of the dialect of the countryside, and which, while dealins^ with higher ethics and sociology, shows the marvellous range and capacity of the simple Bengali that we speak in our daily life,these are some of the treasures and attractions of the modern Bengali prose, of which every Bengali should be justly proud.