Who translated the novel ‘Henrietta Temple’ written by Disraeli, in Malayalam? Why did the author give up the idea of translating English novels? Why did he do instead in the literary field?
NOVELS began appearing in south Indian languages during the period of colonial rule. Early novels came out of attempts to translate English novels into Indian languages. O. Chandu Menon tried to translate English novel ‘Henrietta Temple’ by “Benjamin Disraeli’ into Malyalam. He realised that his readers were not familiar with the way in which the characters in English novels lived; their clothes, way of speaking and manners were unknown to them. They would find a direct translation of English novel dreadfully boring. He gave up the idea and wrote instead a stbry in Malyalam in the ‘manner of English novel books’. The novel called Indulekha’ published in 1889 was the first modern novel in Malyalam. Kandukuri Viresalingam wrote an original Telugu novel called ‘Rajasekhara Caritamu’in 1878.