| NOTA |
(*)Translated by Barry Jackman (★)(Written and revised in the last years of his life, Ueda Akinari´s ´Harusame Monogatari［Tales of the Spring Rain］´ first saw publication in the present century, and this volume represents its first appearance in English. Akinari is best known as the author of ´Ugetsu Monogatari［Tales of Moonlight and Rain］´, long regarded as one of the finest achievements of late Edo Period fiction. ´Harusame Monogatari´was written thirty years later, at a different stage of the author´s life, and should be read when considering the development of Akinari´s style and philosophy. Due to illness and misfortunes in his later years, these stories reflect Akinari´s position as an observer of human activities. he shows himself as a man of strong opinions, as skeptical and, at times, sardonic. His unadorned, direct, rather colloquial prose style in´Harusame Monogatari´ stands in contrast to the ornate language and fantastic happenings of ´Ugetsu Monogatari´. The sources are almost exclusively Japanese, whenever the tales are not original with Akinari. Looking at the stories individually, Mr.Jackman introduces each tale with comments that are a guide to what are some of Akinari´s finest achievements in the realm of storytelling.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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