| NOTA |
(★)(The first full-length study of a modern Japanese writer to appear in any Western language, this book is, in the author´s words,´an introduction to the man and his city, accompanied by a fairly generous sampling from his works. It is neither pure biography nor pure criticism nor yet a pure anthology, but a blending of the three.´ Nagai Kafu is best known for his loving descriptions of the moods and fancies of Tokyo : its gardens and its canals, its sudden rainstorms, its streets and cafes and alleys, its people, and above all its women -kept women, geisha, prostitutes. His works show us many Tokyos : the old Edo, from whose literature he took his earliest inspiration ; the disintegrating Tokyo of the early 1900´s, which occasioned some of his loveliest elegies ; the tense and troubled Tokyo of the 1930´s and the war years. Part I is a biography of Kafu, with background information and critical comments on his works. Part II consists of translations, by the author, of half a dozen of Kafu´s best stories and sketches, and several long excerpts from his novels. Edward Seidensticker, Professor of Japanese at Stanford University, is one of the best-known American translator of modern Japanese fiction.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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