The History of Prathaba Mudaliar

The scene is laid in Southern India. The hero is a well-educated native gentleman of brilliant parts, wit and humour. He gives an account of his birth, parentage, education, marriage and other important events of his life and the narrative is intermixed with various scenes of humour and pleasantry and observations of a moral tendency.

The principal personages who play important parts in this novel are the hero’s mother Sundara Anny and his wife Gnanambal both ladies of high birth and fortune, with every accomplishment both personal and mental, endowed with every estimable quality that could adorn the female sex. They display other noble qualities in many situations of life and take every opportunity of promoting the cause of justice and humanity even at personal risk. By a curious combination of circumstances over which she had no control, Gnanambal rises to sovereign state in the disguise of man and administers the government with great wisdom and ability. She is taken to the highest pinnacle of human greatness with a view to meet the taste of Hindu readers, who are very fond of kings and queens, and who delight to rove through the meanders of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repose by the waterfalls of Elysian gardens.”