Skip to main content

Book Review: Susanna's Seven Husbands by Ruskin Bond

Susanna's Seven Husbands by Ruskin Bond shot into fame when the movie ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’ featuring Priyanka Chopra hit the box office. It is said that the movie was inspired by this five-page short story. Well, it is, but if you read the story and see the movie you will feel the difference as well as like the short story over the movie.


The narrator watches a big mansion in ruin, with a tomb inside it. He was a kid since then he has been seeing it like that only. On the tomb stated the generosity of the interred lady who donated and done for orphanages, churches, etc. He wants to know about the mansion and the tomb where no one goes, and tall wild grass, shrubs, and trees have obscured the pathways intensely. In the neighborhood lives a furniture maker, Naushad. His father used to make and supply furniture for the people living in the mansion. Upon asking, Naushad reveals that the tomb is of a famous lady Susanna, who was known for having seven husbands in one life. He insists to know more about her.

Susanna was an English lady with big estates and rumored treasure inherited from her parents. She was living in a big mansion in South Delhi during the British Raj era. She was known for her wealth. Many men wanted to marry her for wealth. But she was a ruthless lady and extraordinarily beautiful, falling in love with her was easy than said. She married seven times and strange enough none of the husbands lived longer to enjoy her wealth. People say that she killed all her seven husbands but there was hardly proof of that. Also she died a good death after living a long good life. So, she was beyond a doubt.

Her husbands ranged from a drunkard to city magistrate and many in between. Their deaths were quite tragic in nature. The doctor was bitten by the cobra in the bedroom, the magistrate was killed by brigands, and the drunkard died of over drinking. She was very humane, she didn’t like suffering. So, she got rid of all of her husbands in a very smooth way. Moreover, she had a staff of servants, the loyal ones who would follow her blindly. No one could ever gather evidence against her that she was the person behind killing those seven men who wanted to acquire her wealth just by marrying her. It was never an easy task.

Also a white man entered her mansion following her death to find the hidden treasure but he never came out, people say that the mansion is guarded by her ghost and snakes. It is said that even today a horse with a carriage saunters up and down that road in the darkness of the night and a white lady stops for a while to chat with a stranger.

Though short, totally engrossing, written in Ruskin’s inimitable style. It is fun to read with all elements of mystery and horror in it.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...
65 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...
68 comments
Read more

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...
41 comments
Read more