DUTT, TORU (1856-1877), Indian poetess, was born in Calcutta on March 4, 1856, and died there of tuberculosis on Aug. 3o, 1877. She was the youngest child of Govin Chunder Dutt, member of a distinguished Christian family in Bengal who were noted for their poetical gifts. Toru visited Europe with her par ents in 1869 and spent some time in Nice and at Paris. Toru Dutt became an enthusiastic lover of France and French literature; James Darmesteter, in his Essais de Litterature Anglaise, states that "French became her favourite language and France the country of her election." Early in 187o the family arrived in London, removing in 1871 to Cambridge. On their return to India in 1873 Toru contributed to the Bengal Magazine trans lations into English from the Romantic school of French poetry, which were afterwards published, with other pieces, in a volume entitled A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields which won the praise of Andre Theuriet and Sir Edmund Gosse. Her translations of speeches delivered by Victor Hugo and Thiers in the French Legislative Assembly were also published in the Bengal Magazine for June and July, 1875. Her most remarkable work was a French novel, Le Journal de Mlle. D'Arvers, dedicated to Lord Lytton, and published posthumously by Didier (Paris, 1879), with a pref ace by the Orientalist, Mlle. Clarisse Bader. This book was highly praised by Madame de Saffray, and James Darmesteter has included an appreciation of it in his Essais. Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (London, 1882) constitute Toru Dutt's best work in English. In this book she made available, for the appre ciation of English readers, some of the great stories of Indian classical literature and also some beautiful miscellaneous poems. Of these, Our Casuarina Tree is rich in imagery and musical cadences.