prize novel “The Empire of Vizianagaram” published by them will show the literary standards and tastes which prevail in the country. Such a novel would not have found a publisher in England. Nay, no sane Englishman could have written it, an average English school boy would possess a sounder knowledge of the history of his country and a saner historical imagination than the author of the “Empire of Vizianagaram”.
The language is no better than the subject matter. It is a combination of conventional pedantry and common place and is often incorrect.
Though the lists which he has given contain many novels, Mr. Ramalinga Reddi himself does not appear to have formed a favourable opinion of Telugu novels as a class. His condemnation of Mr. Chilakamarti Lakshminarasimham’s “Tales of Rajasthan” as neither good history nor romance is a practical condemnation of modern Telugu literature proper. Because Mr. Lakshminarasimham stands acknowledged as the most popular writer of the day, his tales were prescribed as a text for the Intermediate Examination in Arts two years running and the Board concerned could not find a better text-book for the Vidvan Examination (Oriental). The Tales of Rajasthan is a clumsy unacknowledged adaptation of Feasting’s excellent book for children, “From the Land of the Princess”. A comparison of the English original with the Telugu translation will show that the literary art of the English writer was entirely lost upon the translator.
Mr. Lakshminarasimham’s ‘Hemalata’ was prescribed for non-detailed study for the Intermediate Examination for the year 1916. It is no better than the Tales of Rajasthan. It consists mostly of scenes and characters clumsily borrowed without acknowledgment from Meadows Taylor’s novels and pieced together without much coherence. The novel opens with the adventures of a patriotic Rajaput warrior who seeks to bring about a combination of the Hindu Rajas against the Mussalman Emperor of Delhi. He goes as an emissary of the Raja of Daultabad with an important diplomatic communication to the court of Odeypore. He also desired to see his aged father and his daughter (the heroine) who 1’ 962 My Own Thoughts
