Tagore by Fireside

Tagore By Fireside was written by Maitraye Devi, who enjoyed a long exchange of letters with Tagore. She translated it from her own Bengali work, Mongpute Rabindranath (1943). In it, she provides an account of Tagore's sojourn at Mungpu, a village in Darjeeling district. In the words of Majorie Sykes, it is an intimate word-picture of a great 'man at home' among his friends . Tagore was the houseguest at Maitraye Devi on four occations at Mungpu. She religiously recorded word for word the conversations the poet had with herself and others. In this book we see Rabindranath 'intensely alive in high spirited fun'. The personal especially the humorous side of the poet is brought in such a way that one can 'hear the very inflection of his voice and see the mischievious twinkle in his eyes'.