Sakuntala by Kalidasa and other renderings (4th - 5th C)

 This is a Folio Society volume, including as main piece Michael Coulson's translation of Kalidasa's play. It also includes the relevant small section of the Mahabharata translated by Peter Khoroche, William Radice's translation of Tagore's cousin's Bengali version for children, as well as a set of beautiful colour reproductions of twelve illustrations of the story (from an original group of fifty-four) which apparently date from the early nineteenth century, with accompanying explanatory text. It's a fine story, and I can see why Kalidasa's is the prime one. The play has a lot of rich texture and is by far the longest treatment. There is, however, still a feel of long bending and twisting through use - certain themes and plot-moments feel like they might have been given greater or lesser magnification in previous iterations. I wonder what the history of written/printed versions of it might be? Fifteen centuries must have produced stresses and strains in its fidelity to the original, and varying versions must have abounded. It has an unusual combination of the proto-erotic and the pastoral for Western eyes, but that is welcome for this observer. I guess some of the attitudes that may have accompanied it may not have been as free.