The Oxford India Ghalib : life, letters, and ghazals /

Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869) was, in most critics' estimation, South Asia's greatest poet, and today his works are an important part of the literary heritage of South Asian Muslims. Ghalib, who wrote poetry and prose in classical Persian and Urdu, is difficult to read, even for South Asians educated in English or brought up abroad. Russell, the dean of Ghalib studies, has produced the present book to help those who know of Ghalib but who cannot read him in the original languages. Russell includes generous selections of familiar material--i.e., from Ghalib: [vol. 1] Life and Letters (which Russell tr. and edited with Khurshidul Islam, CH, Apr'71) and from his edited volume Ghalib: The Poet and his Age (1972)--useful essays by Percival Spear and Alessandro Bausani, and much newly translated poetry. Ghalib's prose consists largely of letters, which Russell uses to create a sympathetic biographical portraits--supplementing this material with evocative background material on Delhi and the Mughal court in Ghalib's day. Russell translates Ghalib's Persian and Urdu elegantly and provides a useful elucidation of the formal and rhetorical conventions of classical Persian poetry. The best general introduction to Ghalib available. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty pursuing the study of South Asian literature; general readers. W. L. Hanaway emeritus, University of Pennsylvania