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Hari Narayan Apte (Devanagari: हरि नारायण आपटे) (8 March 1864 – 3 March 1919) was a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India.
Through his writings, he provided an eminent example to future Marathi fiction writers in respect of writing effective novels and short stories which faithfully reflect different aspects of contemporary society. Before him, novelists wrote novels like Gulabakawali (गुलबकावली) with fantastic themes unrelated to realistic social situations.
Apte presided over Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Akola in 1912.
Apte was born in 1864 in the town of Parole in Khandesh region of Maharashtra. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Mumbai to stay there for a few years and then in 1878 to Pune. According to the social custom of his times, his family married him off the next year at his age 15. (His wife died when he was 27. He remarried the next year.) Until his death in 1919, Apte spent the rest of his life in Pune.
British Raj ruled over India in the lifetime of Apte. Highly learned and first-rate social and political leaders in Maharashtra VishnuShastri Chipalunkar, VasudevShastri Khare, Vaman Shivram Apte, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar started in 1880 New English School in Pune with nationalistic fervor. During 1880–1883, Apte attended that school.
In 1883, Apte joined Deccan College. When, in 1885, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar newly started Fergusson College, Apte immediately shifted to that college. He was a brilliant student in all subjects except mathematics. Being unable to pass mathematics tests for three consecutive years, he disappointingly terminated his formal education in 1886 without receiving a college degree.