Résumé
Résumé de Les Pierres affamées et autres histoires
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Les Pierres affamées et autres histoires, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Go deeper: the whole of Les Pierres affamées et autres histoires
About 3 h 10 min to read.Commencez 90 jours gratuitsÀ qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who love ghost stories, fairy tales, family dramas and gentle satire will enjoy this collection. It suits those drawn to Bengal's village and city life and to themes of love, duty and pride.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Why would a tax collector hurry home each evening to a deserted marble palace where he has been warned never to sleep? That is the first question in The Hungry Stones, and Rabindranath Tagore lets it pull you in before you can answer. A stranger tells the tale in a junction waiting room, and the two travellers who hear it cannot agree whether to believe a word.
The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories gathers thirteen tales by Tagore, the Bengali poet who died in 1941.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A haunted palace slowly claims its tax collectorFree
- 2A poet loses a contest and a grandmother spins a tale
- 3Two stories show how love goes unseen in households
- 4Free wishes break rules and faith seeks no crowd
- 5Women push against the roles that society gives them
- 6Pride and vanity meet gentle and funny correction
- 7Caste and custom wound lovers, while a fruit seller wins a friend
- 8Tagore tells small tales with a poet's eye
Point clé 1 sur 8
A haunted palace slowly claims its tax collector
The Hungry Stones begins on a train. Two travellers heading back to Calcutta meet a stranger who talks as if he knew every secret of the age. While they wait at a junction, he tells them how he once served as a young collector of cotton duties at Barich.
Above a flight of 150 steps stands a marble palace built about 250 years earlier by an emperor for his pleasure. The old clerk Karim Khan warns the young man to spend his days there but never his nights. He dismisses the warning with a laugh.
Then the house starts to work on him. One evening by the water he hears the laughter of girls splashing in the river, though he sees no one. By night he wanders the rooms after a Persian woman who flashes through mirrors and dreams. Each dawn a madman called Meher Ali circles the palace, shouting that all is false.
Tagore never says whether the haunting is real. The collector lives two lives, one of ledgers and one of rosewater and longing, and the second slowly wins. The listeners end up arguing about whether the teller is lying, and that doubt is part of the pleasure.
A past that is lovelier than the present can swallow anyone who gives it his evenings.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Take this summary with you
Send to Kindle downloads the file and opens Amazon's page: drop the file there.
Go deeper: the whole of Les Pierres affamées et autres histoires
About 3 h 10 min to read.Commencez 90 jours gratuitsPaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 44,600 words
- Reading timeAbout 3 h 10 min
Questions about Les Pierres affamées et autres histoires
What is The Hungry Stones about?
The title story follows a young tax collector who moves into a lonely marble palace at Barich. The old house begins to draw him into dreams of its past, while his clerk warns him never to spend the night there.
What other stories are in The Hungry Stones and Other Stories?
The book holds thirteen tales, including The Victory, The Home-Coming, My Lord the Baby, The Kingdom of Cards, The Devotee, Vision, Living or Dead?, The Renunciation and The Cabuliwallah.
Who is the Cabuliwallah?
He is Rahmun, a fruit seller from Kabul who walks the streets of Calcutta. He befriends a chattering five-year-old girl named Mini, though her mother fears him, and he keeps a small keepsake of his own daughter.
Are these stories true or fiction?
They are fiction by Rabindranath Tagore, drawn from the life, customs and landscape of Bengal. Some use ghosts, fairy tales or satire, while others read like quiet portraits of ordinary families.
What is the main message of the collection?
The tales suggest that feeling counts for more than rank, rules or clever talk. Again and again, love, loyalty and honesty matter more than custom, pride or the opinion of others.
Cite this edition
Tagore, Rabindranath. The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-hungry-stones-and-other-stories.
Tagore, R. (2026). The hungry stones, and other stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-hungry-stones-and-other-stories (Original work published 1916)
Tagore, Rabindranath. The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-hungry-stones-and-other-stories.
@book{tagore2026hungry,
author = {Tagore, Rabindranath},
title = {The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-hungry-stones-and-other-stories},
note = {First published 1916}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Les Pierres affamées et autres histoires, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
