The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers
Encyclopedia
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
by Indian graphic artist Sarnath Banerjee
Sarnath Banerjee
Sarnath Banerjee is an Indian graphic novelist, artist, and film maker.-Biography:Banerjee was born in Calcutta and lives and works in Delhi, India. He studied image and communication at Goldsmiths College, University of London....
. It is the author's second graphic novel after Corridor
Corridor (graphic novel)
Corridor is an Indian graphic novel, written and illustrated by Sarnath Banerjee, set in contemporary Delhi. A shop owner by the name of Jehangir Rangoonwalla interacts with other residents of Delhi that all visit his shop.-Plot summary:...
, which was widely advertised as the first Indian graphic novel.
Plot introduction
The novel reinvents the legend of The Wandering Jew as a Jewish merchant called Abravanel Ben Obadiah Ben Aharon Kabariti who once lived in 18th century KolkataKolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
(Calcutta) and who recorded the scandalous affairs of its British administrators
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
in a book called "The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers". Although it has several subplots, the novel is basically about the narrator's quest to find the "Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers" which his grandfather Pablo Chatterjee found at an old Jewish trinket shop in Montmartre
Montmartre
Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, in the 1950s. Pablo's wife gave away the book, as well as her husband's other belongings, upon his death; the narrator tries to recover the book, which was one of his childhood favorites.
Explanation of the novel's title
The title is the English translation of Hutum Pyanchar Noksha, which was the title of a 19th century novel in the Bengali languageBengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
, written by Kaliprasanna Singha
Kaliprasanna Singha
Kaliprasanna Singha is remembered for his two immortal contributions to Bengali literature viz. translation of Mahabharata, the largest epic, and his book Hutom Pyanchar Naksha...
. It was originally published as a series and later in novel form in two parts (1862 and 1864).
Main characters
- Narrator: A young man of about thirty, he was living in HackneyLondon Borough of HackneyThe London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at the time of his grandfather's death. - Pablo: The narrator's deceased grandfather appears as a spirit from time to time, encouraging him to find the book. He had worked for Indian RailwaysIndian RailwaysIndian Railways , abbreviated as IR , is a departmental undertaking of Government of India, which owns and operates most of India's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India....
for 35 years and had in fact serendipitously discovered "The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers" in Paris while attending an international conference on broad gaugeBroad gaugeBroad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...
railways. - Digital Dutta: A character from Banerjee's first novel CorridorCorridor (graphic novel)Corridor is an Indian graphic novel, written and illustrated by Sarnath Banerjee, set in contemporary Delhi. A shop owner by the name of Jehangir Rangoonwalla interacts with other residents of Delhi that all visit his shop.-Plot summary:...
, Digital is a computer engineer living in Kolkata. He befriends the narrator and also encourages him to find the book. - Kedar Babu: A babuBabu (title)The term babu, also spelled baboo, is used in modern-day South Asia as a sign of respect towards men. It is a derivation of bapu which means father. The honorific "ji" is sometimes added as a suffix to create the double honorific "babuji" which, in northern and eastern parts of India, is a term of...
or clerk at Writers' BuildingWriters' BuildingThe Writers' Building is the secretariat building of the State Government of West Bengal in India. It is and is located in West Bengal's capital city of Kolkata. The Writers' Building originally served as the office for writers of the British East India Company, hence the name...
, KolkataKolkataKolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, and an amateur occultOccultThe word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
ist, he aids the narrator by creating a "psychic map" for him to follow if he wants to find the book. - Mandar Dey: An aristocratic BengaliBengali peopleThe Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...
cheating on his wife, he is one of several possibles to have taken the book. While at Mandar's home, the narrator is treated to a history of Babu-dom in the Dey clan. - The Wandering Jew: He takes several guises in the novel — a mystic in the 15th century, a French lord in the 16th or the Jewish merchant Abravanel in 18th century Kolkata. As Abravanel, he supplies the Kolkata elite, both British and Indian, goods like corsets, aphrodisiacs and even zebras; his connections give him material for his book.
External links
- penguinbooksindia.com Penguin Books webpage on The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers.
- sarnathbanerjee.net Author's page.
- deccanherald.com Book review by Deccan HeraldDeccan HeraldThe Deccan Herald is a leading English-language daily newspaper distributed in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is published by the Printers Private Limited and has a number of editions in Bangalore, Hubli, Mysore, Mangalore and Gulbarga....
, retrieved on 31 March 2007. - hindu.com Book review by The HinduThe HinduThe Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
, Retrieved on 31 March 2007. - Images from Barn Owl on SacredMediaCow