Bianca; or, The Young Spanish Maiden

By Toru Dutt

"Bianca; or, The Young Spanish Maiden" by Toru Dutt. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Apr 11, 2021
• ISBN: 4064066442408

Toru Dutt

Toru Dutt (1856-1877) was a Bengali poet and translator. Born in Calcutta to a prominent family of Bengali Christians, Dutt was educated from a young age and became a devoted student of English literature. Taught by her father and a private tutor, she learned French, Sanskrit, and English in addition to her native Bengali. At thirteen, she left India with her family to travel through Europe, visiting France, England, Italy, and Germany over the next several years. In 1872, she attended a series of lectures for women at the University of Cambridge alongside her sister Aru, which further sparked her interest in academia and literature. In 1873, the family returned to Calcutta, where Dutt struggled to readjust to Indian culture. She wrote two novels in English and French before publishing A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876), a collection of French poems translated into English. Its critical and commercial success came tragically late, however, as Dutt died of consumption in 1877 at the age of 21. She has since been recognized as the first Indian writer to publish a novel in French, the first Indian woman to publish an English novel, and a pioneering figure in Anglo-Indian literature whose mastery of several languages at such a young age remains remarkably uncommon. Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (1882), a collection of Sanskrit poems translated into English, was her final, posthumously published work.