Akutagawa Ryūnosuke Books

"Clear-eyed glimpses of human behavior in the extremities of poverty, stupidity, greed, vanity… Story-telling of an unconventional sort, with most of the substance beneath the shining, enameled surface." — The New York Times Book Review This collection of six short stories, most of which have never been translated before, includes "In a Grove", a psychologically sophisticated tale about murder, rape, and suicide; "Rashomon", the story of a thief scared into honesty by an encounter with a ghoul; and "Kesa and Morito", the story of man driven to kill someone he doesn't hate by a lover whom he doesn't love. "There are enough Swiftian touches in Akutagawa to show his hatred of stupidity, greed, hypocrisy and the rising jingoism of the day. But Akutagawa's artistic integrity kept him from joining his contemporaries in the easy social criticism or naive introspection…What he did was question the values of his society, dramatize the complexities of human psychology, and study, with a Zen taste for paradox, the precarious balance of illusion and reality."—Howard Hibbett, from the Introduction of Rashomon and Other Stories Classic Japanese stories include: In a Grove Rashomon Yam Gruel The Martyr Kesa and Morito The Dragon

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. Akutagawa was one of the towering figures of modern Japanese literature, and is considered the father of the Japanese short story. This paradigmatic selection, which includes the stories that inspired Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, showcases the terrible beauty, cynicism, sublime pain and absurd humour of his writing. 'One never tires of reading and re-reading his best works. The elegantly spare style has a truly spine-tingling brilliance' - Haruki Murakami

From the author of Rashomon comes a Swiftian satire of Japanese society thinly disguised as the fictitious Kappaland. Peopled with creatures from Japanese folklore, Kappaland serves as a vehicle for the humorous examination of the moral foibles of Japanese society in the early 20th century.

'What is the life of a human being - a drop of dew, a flash of lightning? This is so sad, so sad.' Autobiographical stories from one of Japan's masters of modernist story-telling. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927). Akutagawa's Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories is also available in Penguin Classics.

From a nobleman's court, to the garden of paradise, to a lantern festival in Tokyo, these stories offer dazzling glimpses into moments of madness, murder and obsession. A talented yet spiteful painter is given over to depravity in pursuit of artistic brilliance. In the depths of hell, a robber spies a single spider's thread being lowered towards him. When a body is found in an isolated bamboo grove, a kaleidoscopic account of violence and desire begins to unfold.These are short stories from an unparalleled master of the form. Sublimely crafted and stylishly original, Akutagawa's writing is shot through with a fantastical sensibility. This collection, in a vivid new translation by Bryan Karetnyk, brings together the most essential work from this iconic Japanese writer.

Deftly translated by Ryan Choi, these stories and vignettes (plus two short plays) all have radical brevity in common, demonstrating that Akutagawa was an early and prescient master of what we now call "flash" fiction and non-fiction. With a striking economy of means, the author gives us vivid, eccentric, feeling characters, young and elderly, learned and unpolished, urban and rural. Akutagawa's observations and notes âe" on dreams, on being impersonated, on mountain towns, winter nights, university life and, poignantly, the Great KantÅ Earthquake âe" are as rich and evocative as his stories, with which they share a mesmerising quality. Â First published in Japan between 1914 and 1927 (some posthumously), these works have been overlooked in favour of Akutagawa's longer tales, which have formed the basis of his reputation in the West. In translating them, Choi rounds out our understanding of this master stylist.Â

Этот сборник представляет собой исключительное по богатству собрание произведений великого японского писателя, относящихся к разнообразным жанрам «малой» прозы. Реалистические новеллы и рассказы, действие которых относится к современной автору эпохе, перемежаются с историческими произведениями, изысканно стилизованными под блестящую литературу разных периодов японского Средневековья, те сменяются печальными и мудрыми литературными сказками, философскими притчами, даже сатирической фантастикой, рассказами автобиографического характера. Однако все эти тексты, удивительно разные в жанровом и стилистическом отношении, наполнены свойственной Акутагаве неизменной страстностью отношения к человеку и необычайной остротой проникновения в самые затаенные глубины человеческого ума и души.

Die siebzehn Erzählungen und Prosatexte dieses Bandes entstanden in den letzten Lebensjahren Akutagawa Ryūnosukes (1892–1927), dessen spätes Werk im Westen noch immer weitgehend unbekannt ist. Zur sprachlichen Eleganz und subtilen Psychologie der frühen Werke tritt eine experimentierfreudige stilistische Vielfalt, aus der das Bemühen des Autors spricht, der japanischen Literatur seiner Zeit neue Wege zu weisen. So enthält sein spätes Werk neben Erzählungen etwa Texte in Dialogform, Filmdrehbücher, Aphorismensammlungen, meisterhafte literarische Skizzen in prägnantester Kürze und darüber hinaus eine Vielzahl von Essays, Gedichten und tagebuchähnlicher Prosa. Akutagawas Werke haben auch ein dreiviertel Jahrhundert nach seinem Freitod nichts von ihrer inhaltlichen, sprachlichen und stilistischen Originalität und Lebendigkeit eingebüßt.