TNPSC English Exam - Prose Author Information

 

Prose Author Details

 

Liam O'Flaherty

 

       Liam O'Flaherty(1896–1984) was an Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance. He was a founding member of the Communist Party of Ireland. A native Irish-speaker from the Gaeltacht, O'Flaherty wrote almost exclusively in English, except for a small number of short stories in the Irish language. He spent most of his time in travelling and lived comfortably and quietly outside the spotlight.

 

William Shakespeare

 

           William Shakespeare(1564–1616) was born in Stratfordupon-Avon, England. He was an English poet, playwright and actor. Widely regarded as both the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. His surviving body of work includes 37 plays, 154 sonnets and two narrative poems, the majority of which he penned between 1589 and 1613.

 

Alphonse Daudet

 

       Alphonse Daudet(1840-1897) was a French novelist and short-story writer. The Last Lesson is set in the days of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) in which France was defeated by Prussia led by Bismarck. Prussia then consisted of what now are the nations of Germany, Poland and parts of Austria. In this story the French districts of Alsace and Lorraine have passed into Prussian hands.    

 

 

Mary Mapes Dodge

 

    Mary Mapes Dodge (1831–1905) was an American children's

author and editor, best known for her novel Hans Brinker. She was

the recognized leader in juvenile literature for almost a third of the

nineteenth century. Dodge conducted St. Nicholas for more than

thirty years, and it became one of the most successful magazines for

children. She was able to persuade many of the great writers of the

world to contribute to her children's magazine – Mark Twain, Louisa

May Alcott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Tennyson etc.

 

Joseph Bell

 

         Joseph Bell (1837-1911).He was a lecturer in medicine whose detective approach to diagnosis inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline. Joseph Bell was born in Edinburgh.

 

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

 

         Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character of Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle wrote forty-six short stories featuring the famous detective. The story is narrated by the character, Dr.Watson. Originally a physician, in 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels about Holmes and Dr. Watson. In addition, Doyle wrote over fifty short stories featuring the famous detective. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of fiction. His notable works include Stories of Sherlock Holmes and The Lost World.

 

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

                  Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on 24th April 1973 in Mumbai, Maharastra. He was a former Indian cricketer and captain widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers of all time. He made an impact in cricket from a very early age, displaying a prodigious talent. The world famous cricketer has set many records in his career and is considered as one of the greatest Batsman of all times. He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first to score double century in a One Day International , and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket. He played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring 34,357 runs. In 2012, Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha. He retired from cricket on 16th November 2013. ‘Learning the Game’ is an extract from his autobiography Playing it My Way

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

       Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humourist, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer. Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for his novels. His famous works are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

           Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist born in Tiruchirappalli. He carried out ground-breaking work in the field of light scattering, which earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physics. He discovered that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light changes wavelength. This phenomenon, subsequently known as Raman scattering, results from the Raman effect and to commemorate it, February-28 is celebrated as National Science Day. In 1954, India honoured him with its highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.

 

Jawaharlal Nehru

 

          Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. He emerged as an eminent leader of the Indian independence movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and served India as Prime Minister from its establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in 1964. He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state: a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic. He was also known as ‘Pandit Nehru’ while many Indian children knew him as ‘Uncle Nehru’.

 

 

 

William Temple Hornaday

        William Temple Hornaday, Sc.D. (December 1, 1854 - March 6, 1937) was an American zoologist , conservationist, taxidermist, and author. He was a pioneer in the early wild life conversation movement in the United States. During his life time he published many books and articles on the need for conservation of wild llife

Nathaniel Hawthorne

         Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. The biography of Sir Isaac Newton was published in Nathaniel Hawthorne's, True Stories from History and Biography (1851).

Rabindranath Tagore

     Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Nobel prize-winning Bengali poet, author, philosopher, artist, and educator wrote “Gitanjali” (1912). "My Reminiscences" was written and published in his fiftieth year, shortly before he started on a trip to Europe and America for his failing health in 1912. It was in the course of this trip that he wrote for the first time in the English language for publication.

Ruskin Bond

       Ruskin Bond is a short story writer, novelist and poet, the favourite writer of Indian children. His first novel, Room on the Roof, was published when he was still in his teens. This novel won him the John Rhys Memorial Award in 1957. He also writes about children and the simple hill folk of Uttarakhand. Simplicity and fluency of language and an insight into human nature are hallmarks of his style. His major writings include An Island of Trees, A Bond with the Mountains and The India I Love. He has also been honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award for his contribution to Indian literature.

 

 

Rajagopalachari

        Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878-1972) informally called Rajaji, was an Indian politician, independence activist, lawyer, writer, historian and statesman. Rajagopalachari was born in the village of Thorapalli in the Krishnagiri district. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, as India soon became a Republic in 1950. Furthermore, he was the first Indian-born governor-general, since before him the posts were held by British nationals. He also served as leader of the Indian National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras state. He was one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.

My Reminiscence - Rabindranath Tagore

 

My Reminiscence By Rabindranath Tagore (Source TN Textbook)

 

When I returned home from the outset of my second voyage to England, my brother Jyotirindra and sister-in-law were living in a river-side villa at Chandernagore, and there I went to stay with them.

 

The Ganges again! Again those ineffable days and nights, languid with joy, sad with longing, attuned to the plaintive babbling of the river along the cool shade of its wooded banks. This Bengal sky-full of light, this south breeze, this flow of the river, this right royal laziness, this broad leisure stretching from horizon to horizon and from green earth to blue sky, all these were to me as food and drink to the hungry and thirsty. Here it felt indeed like home, and in these I recognised the ministrations of a Mother.

 

That was not so very long ago, and yet time has wrought many changes. Our little riverside nests, clustering under their surrounding greenery, have been replaced by mills which now, dragon-like, everywhere rear their hissing heads, belching forth black smoke. In the midday glare of modern life even our hours of mental siesta have been narrowed down to the lowest limit, and hydra-headed unrest has invaded every department of life. Maybe, this is for the better, but I, for one, cannot account it wholly to the good.

 

      These lovely days of mine at the riverside passed by like so many dedicated lotus blossoms floating down the sacred stream. Some rainy afternoons I spent in a veritable frenzy, singing away old Vaishnava songs to my own tunes, accompanying myself on a harmonium. On other afternoons, we would drift along in a boat, my brother Jyotirindra accompanying my singing with his violin. And as, beginning with the Puravi,[50] we went on varying the mode of our music with the declining day, we saw, on reaching the Behaga,[50] the western sky close the doors of its factory of golden toys, and the moon on the east rise over the fringe of trees.

 

    Then we would row back to the landing steps of the villa and seat ourselves on a quilt spread on the terrace facing the river. By then a silvery peace rested on both land and water, hardly any boats were about, the fringe of trees on the bank was reduced to a deep shadow, and the moonlight glimmered over the smooth flowing stream.

 

The villa we were living in was known as ‘Moran’s Garden’. A flight of stone-flagged steps led up from the water to a long, broad verandah which formed part of the house. The rooms were not regularly arranged, nor all on the same level, and some had to be reached by short flights of stairs. The big sitting room overlooking the landing steps had stained glass windows with coloured pictures.

 

One of the pictures was of a swing hanging from a branch half-hidden in dense foliage, and in the checkered light and shade of this bower, two persons were swinging; and there was another of a broad flight of steps leading into some castle-like palace, up and down which men and women in festive garb were going and coming. When the light fell on the windows, these pictures shone wonderfully, seeming to fill the river-side atmosphere with holiday music. Some far-away long-forgotten revelry seemed to be expressing itself in silent words of light; the love thrills of the swinging couple making alive with their eternal story the woodlands of the river bank.

 

The topmost room of the house was in a round tower with windows opening to every side. This I used as my room for writing poetry. Nothing could be seen from thence save the tops of the surrounding trees, and the open sky. I was then busy with the Evening Songs and of this room I wrote:

 

     There, where in the breast of limitless space clouds are laid to sleep, I have built my house for thee, O Poesy!