Toru Dutt was a poet, novelist, and natural linguist whose contributions to Indian literature mark her as an immortal voice in Anglo-Indian poetry. Though she died extremely young of consumption at the age of 21, she produced a varied literary output. Born in 1856 into the renowned Dutt family (many of her uncles and cousins, as well as her father, published poetry and prose), Dutt was exposed to an international education, spending time in England, France, and Italy - she would write longingly of these times while convalescing in India. She studied at Cambridge University, and was proficient in Bengali, English, French and Sanskrit. A gifted linguist, her first published collection of poetry, A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876), translated French poets into English. Her second and most well-known collection, Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (1882), published posthumously, translated Sanskrit poems and included her own compositions. An unfinished novel, Bianca, or, The Young Spanish Maiden (1878), inspired by Dutt’s time in England, and a completed novel in French, Le Journal de Mademoiselle d’Arvers (1879), were also published posthumously, the former earning Dutt the credit of the first novel in English by an Indian woman.
