Translator: Hibbett, Howard
-
Beauty and sadness
-
The key ; and, Diary of a mad old man
These two modern classics by the great Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki, both utilize the diary form to explore the authority that love and sex have over all.
-
The key
In The Key, a middle-aged professor plies his wife of thirty years with any number of stimulants, from brandy to a handsome young lover, in order to reach new heights of pleasure. Their alternating diaries record their separate adventures, but whether for themselvess or each other becomes the question.
-
Diary of a mad old man
Diary of a Mad Old Man records, with alternating humor and sadness, seventy-seven-year-old Utsugi’s discovery that even his stroke-ravaged body still contains a raging libido, especially in the unwitting presence of his chic, mysterious daughter-in-law.
-
Seven Japanese tales
Short stories.
-
Quicksand
The voice is insistent, attractive, persuasive – the voice of a cultured Osaka lady, unfortunately widowed young. Sonoko Kakiuchi’s story, however, is unsettlingly at odds with her image. It is a tale of infatuation and deceit, of deliberate evil. Its theme is humiliation, its victim Sonoko’s mild-mannered lawyer husband. And at its center – seducing,…