The Crooked Line (Women Writing the Middle East)

In India’s colonial past, in a time of political and social revolution, Ismat Chughtai masterfully unfolds her magna opus, The Crooked Line: the semi-autobiographical tale of a fiery-spirited, middle-class Muslim girl bent on exploring the shape and nature of consuming desire. Writing with the same honesty and passion as her scandalous short-story, “The Quilt,” Chughtai exposes the complex relationships developed between women living and working in relative seclusion, and the intellectual and emotional contradictions lying in the heart of a rebellious country on the brink of independence from the British Raj and ultimately Partition.

Literature & Fiction

Chughtai, Ismat

Literary

The Feminist Press at CUNY

The Crooked Line is the story of Shamman, a force of nature who rebels against attempts to raise her as a traditional Indian woman. Shipped off to boarding school by her family, she grows into a woman caught up in political unrest, and her passion for India's independence becomes entangled with her passion for an Irish journalist. Writing with honesty and passion, Ismat Chughtai exposes the complex relationships between women living and working in relative seclusion, and the intellectual and emotional contradictions lying in the heart of a rebellious country battling tradition, cultural expectations, and an uncertain future on the brink of independence from the British Raj and ultimately Partition.

Ismat's life has been an inspiring struggle against conservatism. She writes about the life of ordinary people with sensitivity and humor. Major collection of short stories on women.

The Quilt and Other Stories

Contemporary

South Asia Books

'Gloriously provocative...fearless in her writing and acute about female sexuality in a way we still rarely see.'--Kamila Shamsie, The Guardian In The Heart Breaks Free, set in pre-Independence UP, Bua, a free-spirited woman in a conservative Muslim household, is goaded into submission by the women in the family. But even as Bua surrenders to the forces of circumstance, Qudsia Apa, an uncomplaining abandoned wife, stuns everyone by transforming into a rebel. She rejects the life of celibacy and denial forced upon her and picks her own life partner, showing future generations the value and pleasure of subversion. The Wild One is the love story of a servant girl, Asha, and her 'master', Puran, in a feudal household where such a relationship can only be a horror and a tragedy unless it is conducted in secret and quickly forgotten. Yet, when Puran can't muster the strength to defy his class, it is gutsy Asha who manages to beat the odds and win him for herself. Provocative, witty and intensely human as always, Chughtai delivers in these novellas scathing critiques of the cant and hypocrisy of Indian society.

The Heart Breaks Free & the Wild One

Speaking Tiger Books

'She brought into the ambit of Urdu [writing] the hitherto forbidden terrain of female sexuality...she changed the complexion of Urdu fiction.'--Mushirul Hasan, Outlook In the two bold and gripping novellas brought together in this volume, the inimitable Ismat Chughtai writes of subversive women--subversive in unexpected ways--as they experience romantic and sexual desire, defy societal restrictions, struggle, scheme and sometimes court tragedy. Obsession (Saudai), deals with one of Chughtai's favourite themes, the 'master-servant' romance--in this case, two brothers, sons of a feudal household, in love with the same orphan girl. And Wild Pigeons (Jungli Kabutar)--based on the experiences of a famous Bollywood personality--probes the theme of infidelity, dissecting the emotions not only of the partner who is betrayed but also the one who betrays. In Chandni and Abida, the main protagonists of the novellas, Chughtai gives us two of the strongest women in Indian fiction--clever, self-willed, flawed and, in the end, far braver than the men in their lives.

Obsession & Wild Pigeons

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Books by Chughtai, Ismat

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Chughtai, Ismat. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Crooked Line (Women Writing the Middle East)

The Crooked Line (Women Writing the Middle East)

The Quilt and Other Stories

The Heart Breaks Free & the Wild One

Obsession & Wild Pigeons