Genre: Fiction
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The tale of Genji
In the eleventh century Murasaki Shikibu, a lady in the Heian court of Japan, wrote the world’s first novel. But The Tale of Genji is no mere artifact. It is, rather, a lively and astonishingly nuanced portrait of a refined society where every dalliance is an act of political consequence, a play of characters whose…
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Genji and Heike : selections from The tale of Genji and The tale of the Heike
The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike are the two major works of classical Japanese prose. The complete versions of both works are too long to be taught in one term, and this abridgment answers the need for a one-volume edition of both works suitable for use in survey courses in classical…
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The tale of Genji
Written in the eleventh century, this exquisite portrait of courtly life in medieval Japan is widely celebrated as the worlds first novel. Genji, the Shining Prince, is the son of an emperor. He is a passionate character whose tempestuous nature, family circumstances, love affairs, alliances, and shifting political fortunes form the core of this magnificent…
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A wild sheep chase
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Two novels : Seventeen, J
Two views of a world whose traditional values have been blown away: Seventeen, the story of a lonely boy who turns to a right-wing group for self-esteem, and J, the story of a spoiled young drifter son of a Japanese executive.
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Grotesque
In the wake of the brutal murders of two Tokyo prostitutes, Yuriko and Kazue, Yuriko’s older sister describes the three women’s education at a prestigious girls’ high school, where a strict societal conventions determine the courses of their lives.
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Nowaki
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Schoolgirl
The novella that first propelled Dazai into the literary elite of post-war Japan. Essentially the start of Dazai’s career, Schoolgirl gained notoriety for its ironic and inventive use of language. Now it illuminates the prevalent social structures of a lost time, as well as the struggle of the individual against them–a theme that occupied Dazai’s…
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The Scarlet gang of Asakusa
A new translation of the only work not currently available in English by a Nobel-Prize winning author and the best known Japanese writer outside of Japan.
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Confessions of a mask