ABSTRACT
Toru Dutt was not only the first Bengali woman writer to portray an idealistic and abstract image of the European women, but also to write two novellas on the central theme of conjugal and pre-marital love. The reader is offered a glimpse of Marguerite d'Arvers' reaction over Dunois' compliment about her looks heart in the following passage: The description, capturing the excitement of a newly enamored lover, is sensual yet sterile. Harihar Das, Dutt's biographer rightly remarks that the novel is Dutt's "attempt to reproduce scenes from the life of French society in the sixties of the last century, and is peculiarly interesting because of the astonishing revelation it gives of the mind and accomplishments of its writer". Dutt's novels stand apart from the prevalent novel writing scenario or the accompanying apprehension of representation, given the fact that they did not attempt to address.
