Girls for Sale
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Gurajada Apparao
Translated from Telugu by Velcheru Narayana Rao
Penguin Classics,
368 pages, R350
First staged in 1892, Girls for Sale (Kanyasulkam) is considered one of the greatest modern works of Telugu literature and the first major play in an Indian language to critique the effects of colonialism on Indian society. The plot revolves around an English-speaking dandy, a clever courtesan, a young widow and an old man who wants to buy a very young girl as his wife.
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