"Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73) is one of the greatest figures not just of Bengali but also of modern Indian literature. Ghulam Murshid's biography of Dutt is unique in that it provides, with ample evidence of tireless research, a fresh insight into the colourful yet tragic life of this intriguing writer and poet...Although other critical and biographical studies of Dutt's life have appeared in the past, most were based on hearsay and contained gaps in the biographical record, as well as textual flaws, especially in Dutt's English letters and the English poems he wrote before turning to Bengali. Ghulam Murshid is the first biographer to show the close relationship between the life and the works of Dutt..."

- from the cover jacket of the book.