by Haruki Murakami (Introduction), Haruki Murakami (Introduction), Ryunosuke Akutagawa (Author), Jay Rubin (Translator)
Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan's foremost stylists - a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. "Rashomon" and "In a Bamboo Grove" inspired Kurosawa's magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as "The Nose", "O-Gin" and "Loyalty" paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. And in later works such as "Death Register", "The Life of a Stupid Man" and "Spinning Gears", Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Edition: Penguin Classics Deluxe ed.
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 05 Apr 2007
ISBN 10: 0143039849
ISBN 13: 9780143039846