Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876–1938) wrote "Devdas" in 1901 when he was 25. But he could not find a publisher till 1917. Sarat Chandra was sympathetic to the woman - repressed at home and tortured outside. He was partial to those who, for no fault of theirs, incurred the disapproval or displeasure of the family or community. The social and domestic atmosphere in Sarat Chandra's works does not exist any more. But the story interest keeps the reader hooked, irrespective of the plausibility or otherwise of the narrative. His stories were extremely ‘filmogenic’ and therefore, novels like Parineeta (1914), Biraj Bou (1914) and Palli Samaj (1916), appear as topical to the Indian filmmaker as stories written by contemporary writers. Translated in many Indian languages, "Devdas" continues to be Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's most successful and controversial novel.