Nirmala - Hindi - Premchand (Maple Classics)

His real name was Dhanpat Rai but he is better known by his pen name Munshi Premchand. He has been read and studied both in India and abroad as one of the greatest writers of the century. Premchand's literary career started as a freelancer in Urdu. In his initial short stories he has depicted the patriotic upsurge that was sweeping the country in the first decade of the 19th century. In 1914, Premchand started writing in Hindi. Premchand was the first Hindi author to introduce realism in his writings. He pioneered the new art form of fiction with a social purpose. He wrote of the life around him and made his readers aware of the problems of the urban middle-class and the country's villages. Besides being a great novelist, Premchand was also a social reformer and thinker. Nirmala is the story of a young girl who is married to an elderly man due to the lack of dowry after her father's death. It describes the misfortune and suspicions that she has to face and her downfall after the continuous stress and mental trauma that she has to go through. The story very well depicts the pathetic social condition of women during that era.