Toru's first book appeared in 1876, and consisted of a collection of lyrics translated from the French poets. It was printed at Bhowanipore in Bengal, and like the greater number of works hitherto published in India, was badly printed, on poor paper, and had nothing attractive about its appearance. From the ordinary reading public, accustomed to find its poetry enshrined in a prettily designed casket, this uninteresting-looking, paper-covered book, received but scant attention. Fortunately, however, it fell into the hands of a few more discriminating critics, who bestowed upon it some well-deserved praise.
M. Andre Theuriot, the well-known French poet and novelist, reviewed the poems favourably in the Revue des Deux Mondes; while in England they received an appreciative notice from Mr. Edmund Gosse in the Examiner. This gentleman, in a prefatory note to one of Toru Dutt's later works, thus describes the impression made on him by them. "It was while Professor W. Minto was editor of the Examiner, that one day in August 1876, in the very heart of the dead season for books, I happened to be in the office of that newspaper, and was upbraiding the whole body of publishers for issuing no books worth reviewing. At that moment the postman brought in a thin, sallow packet, with a wonderful Indian postmark on it, and containing a most unattractive orange pamphlet of verse, printed at
