Gora
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~210,000 words · 975 passages
Cite this work
- APARabindranath Tagore. (n.d.). Gora. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rabindranath-tagore/gora
- MLARabindranath Tagore. Gora. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rabindranath-tagore/gora.
- ChicagoRabindranath Tagore. Gora. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rabindranath-tagore/gora.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Tagore's novel about a militant, orthodox young Hindu who discovers at the end that he was born Irish and brought up as a Bengali during the revolt of 1857.
Context and history
Published in Bengali in 1910. The final revelation is not a twist for effect: it is the argument, since it dismantles from within the idea of an identity given at birth that Gora has defended throughout the book. Tagore argues at once with Hindu nationalism and with the reformism of the Brahmo Samaj, without wholly granting either the point. This version is an English translation; for citing Tagore, the original is the Bengali.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
arguing till two o’clock in the morning, waking up startled when the sun arose to find that they had fallen asleep together on the mat. When they had no more college examinations to pass then it was on this roof that the meetings of the Hindu Patriots’ Society were held once a month with one ot tut friends as Chairman and the other as Secretary. The name of the Chairman was Gourmohan, called by his friends and his relations Cora. He seemed to have utterly outgrown all around him. One of Ins college 1 rofexsnrs used to <5dl him the Snow Mountain, for lie was outrageously white, his complexion unmellowed by oven the slightest tinge of pigment. He was nearly six feet tall, with big bom*, and lists like the paws of a tiger. The sound o Ins voice was so deep and rough that you would be starded if you suddenly heard him call out, “ Who is there ? ’ Hi* face seemed need-./ lessly large and excessively strong, the bones of his jaws and chi/ being like the massive bolts of a fortress. He had practically no eyebrows, his forehead sloping broadly to the ears. His lips were thin and compressed Ins nose projecting over them like a sword. His eyes, small but keen, seemed to be aimed at some unseen distant object like the point of an arrow, yet able to turn in a flash to strike something near at hand. Gourmohan was not exactly good-looking, but it was impossible to overlook him, for he would have been conspicuous