![]() Early Life of Vikram Seth Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 in Kolkata, West Bengal. He studied at St. Michael's High School, Patna and at the Doon School in Dehradun. He also studied at St. Xavier's High School, Patna. Later Career of Vikram Seth After formal education, Vikram Seth moved to London and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He then pursued a Ph.D. in Economics at Stanford University. After graduating from Doon, Seth went to Tonbridge School, England to complete his A-levels. Works of Vikram Seth Seth's first 'novel' - The Golden Gate - was published in 1986. Composed of no less than 690 rhyming tetrameter sonnets (more than 7000 lines), The Golden Gate is a satirical romance set in San Francisco and is centred on the relationship of two professionals. What is surprising is not Seth's shift between prose and poetry (here he is in the company of several contemporary writers), but that an author famous for such an expansive, 'unrestrained' work of fiction, could also write with the formal and verbal restraint, economy and discipline of Seth-the-poet. In his next novel, A Suitable Boy Seth combined satire and romance to even greater effect in what became one of the most popular epic narratives of the late twentieth century. This heavy weight novel is described by one critic as 'three and a half pounds of perfection' has earned Seth comparison with Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens and George Eliot. The classic realism of "A Suitable Boy", which took Seth almost a decade to write, was for many readers of Indian fiction in English, a welcome break from the magical realism of that other heavy weight author from the subcontinent, Salman Rushdie. Set in Brahmpur, A Suitable Boy uses the taboo relationship between a boy and girl as a metonym through which to explore the post-Independence conflict in India between Hindus and Muslims. The novel centres on four families: the Kapoors, Mehras and Chatterjis (Hindus) and the Khans (Muslim). Mrs Rupa Mehra is looking for a 'suitable boy' for her wayward daughter, Lata. 'Suitable' here means Hindu, but Lata, it seems, has her eyes set on a Muslim boy. The repercussions of this relationship consume one thousand three hundred and forty nine pages. Vikram Seth's novel, An Equal Music (1999), is another romantic novel, but this time minus the satire of A Suitable Boy and a thousand or so pages. The book centres on two gifted musicians: Michael Holme and Julia McNicholl. As Michael works on a Beethoven piece for the Maggiore Quartet, he grows increasingly preoccupied with recollections of his student days in Vienna where he met Julia. When the two are re-united by chance in London, their relationship is re-kindled. One of the most impressive aspects of this novel is the way in which it manages to convey music through language. While Seth is modest about his musical abilities, the fact that he was commissioned to write a libretto (later published as Arion and the Dolphin) for the English National Opera in 1994 suggests he is no novice. "An Equal Music" takes a conventional romantic plot and renders it compelling and novel through the seductive clarity and precision of its prose. Poetries of Vikram Seth "Mappings" (1980) was Seth's first volume of poetry, a little known collection, it includes translations of work by Chinese, German and Hindi poets. Through Mappings Seth served something of an apprenticeship while revealing an early preoccupation with European and Chinese cultural production that has, if anything, become more pronounced in his more recent work. ![]() Works at a Glance
Social Work of Vikram Seth In the year 2006, Vikram Seth became a leader of the campaign against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a law against homosexuality. Awards Received by Vikram Seth
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Vikram Seth