japanese literature

in english

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Author: Soseki Natsume

  • I am a cat

    Written over the course of 1904-6, Soseki’s comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the follies of upper-middle-class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him. The New Yorker…

  • The three cornered world

  • The Miner

  • Ten nights of dream ; Hearing things ; The heredity of taste

  • The heredity of taste

  • Kusamakura

    Natsume Soseki’s Kusamakura follows its nameless young artist-narrator on a meandering walking tour of the mountains. At the inn at a hot spring resort, he has a series of mysterious encounters with Nami, the lovely young daughter of the establishment. Nami, or ‘beauty,’ is the center of this elegant novel, the still point around which…

  • Nowaki

  • Mon (The gate)

    The Gate describes the world of the humble clerk Sosuke and his wife Oyone, living in quiet obscurity in a house at the bottom of a cliff. Childless, the couple find themselves having to take responsibility for Sosuke’s younger brother. Oyone’s health begins to fail, and news that Oyone’s ex-husband will be visiting near by…

  • And Then

    And Then, ranked as one of Soseki Natsume’s most insightful and stirring novels, tells the story of Daisuke, a young Japanese man struggling with his personal purpose and identity, as well as the changing social landscape of Meiji-era Japan. As Japan enters the 20th century, ancient customs give way to western ideals, creating a perfect…

  • Light and darkness; an unfinished novel.