This three-volume English translation by Ratan Kumar Chattopadhyay called Selections from Galpaguchchha is a collection of sixty-one of Tagore’s short stories broadly grouped under the themes of parting of ways, the relationship between men and women, and the power within the woman, respectively.

In Volume 2, we find the ever- popular ‘Ramkanai’s Folly’, ‘The Ghat’s Story’, ‘Woman Bereft of Jewels’, ‘Grandfather’, and ‘The Matronly Boy’, among other stories. The travails of a timid man of indomitable honesty who attains a tragic heroism are narrated in ‘Ramkanai’s Folly’, while the theme of ‘The Ghat’s Story’ is the unstated, forbidden love of a young woman for a hermit who may or may not be her long-lost husband. The frisson in the haunting climax of the ‘Woman Bereft of Jewels’, a horrifying morality tale of egotism and greed, is justly famous.

Translator’s Preface
1 Cloud and Sunshine
(Megh O Roudra)
2 The Ghat’s Story
(Ghater Katha)
3 The Matrimonial Deal
(Dena-Paaona)
4 Ramkanai’s Folly
(Ramkanaiyer Nirbuddhita)
5 Grandfather
(Thakurda)
6 Nuisance
(Aapad)
7 The Matronly Boy
(Ginni)
8 The Skeleton
(Kankal)
9 Folly
(Durbuddhi)
10 Wish-fulfilment
(Ichchhapuran)
11 The Rift
(Byabadhan)
12 Reciprocation
(Daan-Pratidaan)
13 Retaliation
(Pratihinsa)
14 Resentment Appeased
(Maanbhanjan)
15 The Wedding Garland
(Malyadaan)
16 The Intervening Woman
(Madhyabartini)
17 The Haldar Family
(Haldargoshthi)
18 Rasmani’s Son
(Rasmanir Chhele)
19 Fertility Sacrifice
(Putrayajna)
20 Nature’s Child
(Balai)
21 Woman Bereft of Jewels
(Manihara)
22 The Ending
(Samapti)
Glossary