7 h 41 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when the freedom a husband gives his wife draws her toward another man—and a dangerous cause?
On a family estate in Bengal, Bimala lives within the quiet boundaries of marriage. Her husband, Nikhil, wants her to enter the wider world and choose him freely. Then his old friend Sandip arrives. A gifted speaker for the swadeshi movement, he brings patriotic excitement into the house, and Bimala feels its pull.
In The Home and the World, Rabindranath Tagore lets Bimala, Nikhil and Sandip tell the same weeks in their own voices. Around them, calls to reject British goods grow louder. Inside the home, love and loyalty become harder to separate from power. Nikhil refuses force, while Sandip mixes devotion to his country with a hunger for admiration.
What you’ll discover
- A wife steps outside Follow Bimala as a wider life brings desire, uncertainty and the burden of choosing.
- Love without force Meet a husband whose steady respect asks more difficult questions than possession ever could.
- The pull of Sandip Watch a magnetic speaker draw private longing into the heat of a public cause.
- Three competing voices Hear each central character speak with conviction, and weigh their claims against one another.
- Patriotism under pressure Explore what happens when the call for national freedom threatens the freedom of others.
Who will love it
For readers who love novels of ideas, domestic dramas with a political edge, and the history of India under British rule.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A marriage begins inside quiet walls
- Nikhil opens the door to the world
- Sandip arrives and Bimala is stirred
- The cause grows louder around the estate
- Nikhil refuses to force the poor
- Bimala is torn between two kinds of love
- Three voices tell one story
- What freedom and patriotism really ask of us
- Why the book still divides readers
Who’s who
- BimalaA young wife raised in seclusion, who steps into public life and must learn what she wants for herself.
- NikhilA thoughtful landowner who wants his wife to choose him freely and who will not use force, even for a good cause.
- SandipNikhil's old friend and a gifted nationalist speaker, who mixes patriotic zeal with his own hunger for power and admiration.
- The Bara RaniNikhil's elder brother's widow, who lives in the house, watches Bimala closely and enjoys the family's quarrels.
- Chandranath BabuNikhil's old schoolmaster, a calm and humane man who stands for patient moral wisdom.
- AmulyaA young follower of Sandip, full of eager loyalty to the cause and ready to do whatever is asked.
- Miss GilbyThe English governess whom Nikhil hires to teach Bimala and help her enter a wider world.
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- Audiobook
- 7 h 41 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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La Maison et le Monde
by Rabindranath Tagore · 1916
Bimala steps out of seclusion as a magnetic nationalist enters her home, putting love and loyalty to the test.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A marriage begins inside quiet walls
The novel opens with Bimala looking back. She is the wife of Nikhil, a zamindar, which means a landlord who holds an old family estate and collects rent from its tenants. She was married young and has lived most of her life inside the inner apartments of his house. Her world is the household, its rituals and its servants. She is devoted to her husband in the way she was taught a wife should be.
Nikhil is not an ordinary landlord. He is gentle, educated and given to thinking. He does not boast, and he does not enjoy using the power his name gives him. Other people read this softness as weakness. His own relatives find him strange, because he does not live as a man of his rank is expected to live.
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What is The Home and the World about?
It is about a landowner, his wife and his old friend during the swadeshi movement in Bengal. A love triangle becomes a debate on freedom, loyalty and nationalism, told in three alternating voices.
Who are the main characters in The Home and the World?
The three main voices are Bimala, a wife moving out of seclusion, her husband Nikhil, a gentle landowner, and Sandip, a charismatic nationalist leader. Others include the Bara Rani, Amulya and Chandranath Babu.
What does the title The Home and the World mean?
The home stands for private life, marriage, family duty and feeling. The world stands for politics, markets and public causes. The novel shows how the two shape and strain each other.
The author
Rabindranath Tagore
1861–1941 · Bengali poet and philosopher
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was a Bengali poet and writer born in Calcutta, British India, where he also died. He lived in Bengal and founded a school at Santiniketan in 1901. He wrote poetry, stories, plays and essays. His Bengali collection Gitanjali appeared in 1910; his English version appeared in 1912.
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