TAGS: Literature, Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Autobiography, Memoirs,

Japanese literature

Junichiro Tanizaki - Novels, Short Stories and a Memoir (15 books)

JUN'ICHIRO TANIZAKI (1886-1965) was one of the major writers of modern Japanese
literature, and perhaps the most popular Japanese novelist after Natsume Soseki.
Some of his works present a shocking world of sexuality and destructive erotic
obsessions. Others, less sensational, subtly portray the dynamics of family life
in the context of the rapid changes in 20th-century Japanese society. Frequently
his stories are narrated in the context of a search for cultural identity in which
constructions of "the West" and "Japanese tradition" are juxtaposed.

Tanizaki's earliest stories show affinities with Edgar Allan Poe and the French
Decadents. In "The Tattooer" (1910), for example, a tattoo artist inscribes a
giant spider on the body of a beautiful young woman, after which the woman's beauty
takes on a demonic, compelling power, in which eroticism is combined with sado-
masochism. In the aftermath of the earthquake in 1923, Tanizaki moved to Kyoto
where his youthful love for the imagined West and modernity was redirected into a
renewed interest in traditional Japanese aesthetics, culture, and ideals of beauty.
His first truly successful novel was NAOMI (1924-25), a tragicomic exploration of
class, sexual obsession, and cultural identity. SOME PREFER NETTLES (1929), one of
his finest works, reflects the change in his own system of values, describing
marital unhappiness that is in fact a conflict between the new and the old, with
the implication that the old will win. His renewed interest in classical Japanese
literature culminated in his multiple translations into modern Japanese of the
eleventh-century classic "The Tale of Genji" and in his masterpiece THE MAKIOKA
SISTERS (1943-48), a detailed characterization of four daughters of a wealthy Osaka
merchant family who see their traditional way of life slipping away in the early
years of World War II.

His first major post-war work was CAPTAIN SHIGEMOTO'S MOTHER (1949-50), which
includes a restatement of Tanizaki's frequent theme of a son's longing for his
mother. The novel also introduces a new theme, sexuality in old age, which
reappears in later works. For example, THE KEY (1956) is a psychological novel in
which an aging professor arranges for his wife to commit adultery in order to boost
his own sagging sexual desires, while in one of his last novels, DIARY OF A MAD OLD
MAN (1961-62), the elderly diarist is struck down by a stroke brought on by an
excess of sexual excitement.

The following books are in ePUB and/or PDF format as noted:

* A Cat, a Man, and Two Women (Kodansha, 1990). Paul McCarthy, trans. -- PDF
* Childhood Years: A Memoir (Kodansha, 1988). Paul McCarthy, trans. -- PDF
* Diary of a Mad Old Man (Vintage, 1991). Howard Hibbett, trans. -- PDF
* Gourmet Club, The (Michigan, 2017). Anthony Chambers and Paul McCarthy, trans.
-- ePUB + PDF
* In Black and White (Columbia, 2017). Phyllis Lyons, trans. -- ePUB
* In Praise of Shadows (Leetes Island, 1977). Thomas Harper, trans. -- ePUB + PDF
* Key, The (Vintage, 1991). Howard Hibbett, trans. -- PDF
* Makioka Sisters, The (Vintage, 2000). Edward G Seidensticker, trans. -- ePUB
* Naomi (North Point, 1985). Anthony Chambers, trans. -- ePUB + PDF
* Quicksand (Vintage, 1994). Howard Hibbett, trans. -- ePUB
* Red Roofs & Other Stories (Michigan, 2016). Anthony Chambers and Paul McCarthy,
trans. -- ePUB
* Reed Cutter / Captain Shigemoto's Mother (Knopf, 1994). Anthony Chambers, trans.
-- PDF
* Secret History of the Lord of Musashi / Arrowroot (Vintage, 1982). Anthony
Chambers, trans. -- ePUB
* Seven Japanese Tales (Tuttle, 1967 / Vintage, 1996). Howard Hibbett, trans. --
ePUB + PDF
* Some Prefer Nettles (Tuttle, 1955). Edward G Seidensticker, trans. -- ePUB

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