HOME > LITERATURE > Modern Japanese Literature > The Real Osamu Dazai A Life in Twenty Stories

[new] The Real Osamu Dazai

A Life in Twenty Stories

The Real Osamu Dazai
enlarge

Author Osamu Dazai
Translator James O'Brien
Price JPY 2,420
ISBN 978-4-8053-1834-8
Format 130x203mm 320pages Paperback
Availability In stock
  • click to purchase

Description

Best-known for his novels No Longer Human and The Setting Sun, Dazai was also an acclaimed writer of short stories, experimenting with a wide variety of styles and bringing to each work a sophisticated sense of humor, a broad empathy for the human condition and a tremendous literary talent. The twenty stories in this collection include:

Memories ? An autobiographical tale in which Dazai relates episodes from his own childhood and adolescence, showing his relationship with his family and his tendency towards introspection and self-dramatization

On the Question of Apparel ? A comic tour-de-force in which Dazai examines the hold that fashion has over him and how it relates to his own pathetic self-image

A Poor Man's Got His Pride ? A retelling of a story by 18th-century master of burlesque fiction Ihara Saikaku, about a fallen samurai who lives in poverty

The Sound of Hammering ? A love story set against the backdrop of the rebuilding of Tokyo after the city was totally destroyed during World War Two

And sixteen other stories!

By turns hilarious, ironic, introspective, mystical and sarcastic, these stories present a fully rounded portrait of a talented writer who tried several times to take his own life and ultimately succeeded. An introduction by translator James O'Brien gives the background to Dazai's life and shows how the stories in this book, whether autobiographical or fictional, contribute to an understanding of one of Japan's greatest writers.

* cover price / excluding tax