Before Bharathi, Tamil writers considered writing in a way readers cannot understand as a mark of punditry. It was almost a tradition to employ a difficult style to explain even a simple matter. After showing the readers how involuted and difficult the styles of writers before Bharathi were, Vallikannan discusses the innovative features of Bharathi and the impact they made on his successors. He discusses the individualistic features of several great writers of Tamil fiction and their contribution to the development of Tamil as a language reflecting modernity and capable of coping with the knowledge explosion witnessed up to the present day.
The book discusses the works of the stalwarts of Tamil fiction: Kalki, Puthumaipithan, Ku. Pa. Rajagopalan, La. Sa. Ra., Mouni, Jayakanthan, Sujatha and many more including a few Sri Lankan Tamil writers. Apart from these, Vallikannan has made an incisive study of the oratorical style of C. N. Annadurai, one of the most accomplished statesmen of Tamil Nadu.
This book will help students, researchers, academics and Tamil literature enthusiasts get a good understanding of the Tamil writers discussed and the development of Tamil prose through the major part of the twentieth century.