Additional Reading

On Edmund Gosse:

• Wikipedia article
• Biographicon article

On Toru Dutt:

• Project Gutenberg Text
• The Dutt Family Album on Google Books
• Published in 1870, this book contains poems by Toru Dutt’s father, Grovin Chunder Dutt, his brothers, Hur Chunder Dutt and Greece Chunder Dutt, and a cousin, Oomesh Chunder Dutt.
• Preface: "The writers of the following pages are aware that bad poetry is intolerable, and that mediocre poetry deserves perhaps even a harsher epithet. There is a glut of both in the market. But they venture on publication, not because they think their verses good, but in the hope that their book will be regarded, in some respects, as a curiosity. They are foreigners, natives of India, of different ages, and in different walks of life, yet of one family, in whom the ties of blood relationship have been drawn closer by the holy bond of Christian brotherhood. As foreigners educated out of England, they solicit the indulgence of British critics to poems which on these grounds alone may, it is hoped, have some title to their attention."
• "An Epistolary Friendship"
• This article appeared in The Telegraph, a newspaper based in Calcutta, India, and explores the European influences on Toru Dutt. The article identifies Dutt’s spectrum of influences and education spanning a wide international range, which plays a major role in the superiority of her poetry.
• Wikipedia Article: Bengal Rennaissance
• Toru Dutt was a product of the ground-breaking Bengali Renaissance. Often compared to the 16th Century European Renaissance, the Bengal Renaissance (also called the Hindu Renaissance) was a major turning point for art, literature, and an overall modernization of traditional Bengali philosophies. Toru Dutt’s family, lifestyle, and writings all exemplify the great transition from traditional Bengali lifestyle to the enlightened 19th Century Bengali world.