R.K. Narayan's immense literary oeuvre comprises novels, novellas, short stories, travelogues, and film scripts. In a career spanning over six decades, the creator of Malgudi received, notably, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Padma Bhushan, and the Padma Vibhushan.

Drawing upon his five decades of sustained interest and research on Narayan, and his own experience as a writer, Ranga Rao offers in this volume detailed critical analyses of Narayan's fifteen novels and novellas. Through the lens of the three gunas in Indian philosophy, Rao traces Narayan's shift from sattvic comedies to...