She remained in Calcutta till November 1869, after which she and her sister Aru traveled to France,

Italy and then England. She went to a school in France for the first time of her life and had an intimacy with French during that period.Toru Dutt was born into the well known Dutt family of Rambagan. Many of her uncles and cousins as well as her father, Govin Chunder Dutt, published poetry and prose. Her education and upbringing were rather unusual for even progressive mid-nineteenth century Bengal. Toru Dutts family had converted to Christianity, which in some ways led to a feeling of social alienation for the Dutt family in India. In 1869, a few years after the death of their elder brother Abju, Govin Chunder Dutt took his wife and two young daughters Aru and Toru to travel in Europe. They spent a few months in Nice where both sisters attended a French Pension and learnt French. In 1870 the family travelled to Brompton, England via Boulogne. It was unusual for Indian women of the time to travel abroad and also to gain an education abroad. In England both sisters continued their French Studies. While living in Cambridge between 1871-3 they attended the Higher Lectures for Women at the University. Toru Dutt met and befriended Mary Martin, the daughter of Reverend John Martin of Sidney Sussex College. The friendship that developed between the two girls at this time continued in their correspondence after Torus return to India, until the time of Torus death. Toru Dutt seemed to have acquired a good set of acquaintances whilst attending the lectures at Cambridge as she mentions quite a few names in her correspondence with Mary Martin after her return to India. Amongst these names are Mr and Mrs Baker, the proprietors of Regent House where the Dutt family lodged in Cambridge; the son, Reginald, and daughters of Rev H. Hall of St Pauls Church, Cambridge; Mr Clifford who later comes to officiate at the church near the Dutts Garden House outside Calcutta, and Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb who was then Professor of Greek at Trinity. A collection of Toru Dutts correspondence includes her letters written from England to her cousins in India. Toru Dutt was a natural linguist and in her short life became proficient in Bengali, English, French and, later on, Sanskrit. Although she died at an exceptionally early age she left behind an impressive collection of prose and poetry. Her two novels, the unfinished Bianca or The Young Spanish Maiden written in English and Le Journal de Mademoiselle dArvers, written in French, were interestingly based outside India with non-Indian protagonists. Her poetry comprises A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields consisting of her translations into English of French poetry, and Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan which compiles her translations and adaptations from Sanskrit literature. A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields was published in 1876 by the Saptahik Sambad Press, Bhowanipore without any preface or introduction. At first this collection attracted little attention but later it famously fell into the hands of Edmund Gosse who gave it a splendid review in The Examiner of August 1876. When her collection of Sanskrit translations Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan was published posthumously in 1882 Edmund Gosse wrote an introductory memoir for it. In this he wrote of Toru: She brought with her from Europe a store of knowledge that would have sufficed to make an English or French girl seem learned, but which in her case was simply miraculous

[edit] Publishing career

After publication of several translations and literary discussions, she published A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields, a volume of French poems she had translated into English, with Saptahiksambad Press of Bhowanipore, India in 1876. Eight of the poems had been translated by her elder sister Aru. This volume came to the attention of Edmund Gosse in 1877, who reviewed it quite favorably in the Examiner that year. Sheaf would see a second Indian edition in 1878 and a third edition by Kegan Paul of London in 1880, but Dutt lived to see neither of these triumphs.

[edit] Posthumous publications

At the time of her death, she left behind two unpublished novels, "Le Journal de Mademoiselle dArvers," (thought to be the first novel in French by an Indian writer,) and "Bianca, or the Young Spanish Maiden," (thought to be the first novel in English by an Indian woman writer) in addition to an unfinished volume of original poems in English, "Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan".

Annotated Ancient Ballads with Critical Introduction Toru Dutt sonnet PIB feature on Toru Dutt Selected poetry of Toru Dutt Indian English poetry Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan

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