Contains stories about north India, some based on the author's 'own experiences as the wife of an officer serving on the frontier, others based on incidents in the history of India'. Following Anderson's death, another collection of Indian stories was published under the title The Little Ghosts (1959); this posthumous work contains five of the stories from Indian Tales but also nine new ones. (Source: John Douglas Pringle, 'Foreword', The Best of Ethel Anderson, 1973)
The Little Ghosts
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1959
Z307914
1959
selected work
short story
prose
'This collection of Ethel Anderson's Indian stories calls back to life a world that has passed away. Against the richly coloured background of Indian life, ranging in time from the sixteenth century to the last days of British rule, rajahs and camel-drivers, white nabobs and exquisite princesses, gipsies [sic], and English gentlewomen play out their comedies and tragedies. There are scenes so strange and bizarre that they would be incredible of their vividness did not carry its own conviction, and others that live in the memory by their intense and haunting beauty; there are tales of cruelty and passion and of charming light-heartedness. The brilliance of Ethel Anderson's style, with its distinctive blending of wit and poetry, makes her the perfect chronicler of this fascinating world.' (Source: 1959 Angus and Robertson edition)
(Introduction)
(Introduction)
