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()(Translated by Sammy I. Tsunematsu^@LNI-281Les mismo libro.^@Titulo original : ÉqËÌ [Garasudo no Uchi, 1915]^@Originally published as LGarasudo no UchiL in daily serialization in the Asahi Newspaper in 1915, before appearing in book form, LInside My Glass DoorsL is a collection of thirty-nine autobiographical essays penned a year before the authorLs death. Written in the genre of Lshoohin [Llittle itemsL]L, the personal vignettes provide a kaleidoscopic view of Soseki NatsumeLs private world and shed light on his concerns as a novelist.^@From his book-lined study in his residence in Kikui-cho, Soseki muses on his present situation and reflects on the past. The story is filled with flashbacks to SosekiLs youth --his classmates, family and old neighborhood-- as well as episodes from the more recent past. Included are SosekiLs characteristic ruminations about his physical well-being and his observations on the clamorous state of the world outside. The essays in this book, crafted with extraordinary subtlety and psychological depth, reflect the work of a great author at the height of his powers.^@In his LIntroductionL to the book, Dr. Marvin Marcus, Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Literature at Washington University, provides a fresh perspective on Soseki the man and writer, as well as an insightful commentary on the novel itself and the place of LshoohinL, and of reminiscence, in SosekiLs writings. A selection of photographs of Soseki and his family and friends adds further interest to this translation.^@Soseki Natsume (1867-1916) is widely considered the foremost novelist of the Meiji period (1868-1914). After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1893, Soseki taught high school before spending two years in England on a Japanese government scholarship. He returned to lecture in English literature at the university. Numerous nervous disorders forced him to give up teaching in 1908 and he became a full-time writer for the Asahi newspaper. In addition to fourteen novels, Soseki wrote haiku, poems in the Chinese style, academic papers on literary theory, essays, autobiographical sketches and fairy tales.^@Sammy I. Tsunematsu is founder and curator of the Soseki Museum in London, and the translator of several of SosekiLs works. He has also researched and published widely on the Japanese artist Yoshio Markino, who was a contemporary of SosekiLs living in London at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tsunematsu has lived in Surrey, England, for thirty years.) |