Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Rating: 5 (1 vote)

Tags: Set in Japan Male author

Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories

Description:
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.

Add comment

More books from Japan

The Travelling Cat Chronicles Men Without Women The Bells of Nagasaki

More books from Read Around Asia Challenge

I Saw Ramallah Under the Drops of Falling Rain Just Another Jihadi Jane