Contents: Preface. Acknowledgement. Abbreviations. 1. Making of the writer. 2. Repression of woman as the other. 3. Concerns of love and marriage. 4. Women and family. 5. Voices of resistance. 6. Emergence of the new women. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

From the Preface: "R.K. Narayan emerges as one of the most important novelist in presenting the realities of women's lives. His works present women characters within the Indian socio-cultural milieu. He highlights woman's lived experience in search of identity in the complex social order. He displays the different facets of woman's life and shows what it is to be a woman, and the effort a woman has to make towards establishing her identity.

The present analysis of Narayan's novels is with a view to understand the novelist's concept of womanhood. It is in this concept that Narayan's deep and profound relationship with society is analyzed."