Kokoro / Natsume Soseki ; translated by Edwin McClellan ; introduced by Damian Flanagan.

Author
Natsume, Sōseki, 1867-1916 [Browse]
Uniform title
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • London ; Chester Springs, PA : Peter Owen, [2007]
  • Chester Springs, PA : Dufour Editions
Description
xxix, 248 pages : portrait ; 20 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
East Asian Library - Western Languages PL812.A8 K614 2007 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Translator
    Library of Congress genre(s)
    Series
    UNESCO collection of representative works. Japanese series [More in this series]
    Summary note
    Natsume Soseki's importance to Japanese literature can be compared to that of Dickens to Britain or Henry James to America. Like these writers, his work now holds a hugely popular and important place in the literary imagination of his country. Unlike them, his work is only recently coming to the attention of readers from overseas. "Kokoro" joins the recent publications of "The Gate", "The Tower of London" and "the Three Cornered World" from Peter Owen as part of an international programme to bring one of Japan's best known authors to a new English speaking audience. As Damian Flanagan says in his new critical introduction "Kokoro" is the Soseki novel that has been given most attention by critics and the public in Japan. On one level, a meditation on the changing face of Japanese culture and its attitudes to honour, friendship, love, death, it is also a sly subversion of all of these things. The novel centres around the friendship between the narrator and the man he calls Sensei, who is haunted by mysterious events in his past. As the friendship grows and the narrator gets to know more about the man he so admires he is increasingly intrigued by this hidden history. The Sensei, however, refuses to reveal anything until the third part of the book when the narrator is called away to look after his sick father and the truth is revealed in tragic circumstances, etching itself onto the narrator - and the reader's - "Kokoro" : Heart.
    Language note
    Translated from the Japanese.
    ISBN
    • 9780720612974 ((pbk.))
    • 0720612977 ((pbk.))
    OCLC
    123113874
    Statement on language in description
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