Bibliofile

Ending a messy marriage can be great for business. Only look at Rupa, the bookseller turned publisher. Ever since Rupa parted ways with HarperCollins earlier this year, there’s been no stopping the deluge of Rupa paperbacks. It churns out the usual works, of course, but where it really scores is in its quick eye for lapsing copyright. For instance, within seven months of Tagore’s copyright being freed for all, Rupa has published a whopping 34 Tagore titles in English. Freed of royalty costs, relying for the most part on the Gurudev’s own translations, with little or no editorial expenses, it can afford to price these books at an unbeatable Rs 50 each.

Longer even than its Rabindra Rachnavali series is Rupa’s list of classic reprints. The latest gem publishers have rescued from oblivion is a set of Arnold Bennett’s essays called Literary Taste—How to form it, with detailed instructions for collecting a complete library of English literature. In this volume first published in 1909, the novelist of Anna of the Five Towns and over a dozen other novels best forgotten makes a forceful case for going back to the classics. Not for the sake of literary pretensions or for timepass, but simply to get the most out of life. The test of true literature, according to Bennett, is writing—and reading—with passion. The cost of Bennett’s library for every English reader is £8,718 (562 books/327 authors). But with publishers like Rupa around, Indian readers would be able to acquire his complete library for a few hundred rupees.