Skip to product information
1 of 1

The Real Osamu Dazai

The Real Osamu Dazai

A Life in Twenty Stories

Paperback

Regular price £11.89
Regular price Sale price £11.89

Join our rewards scheme and earn 36 reward points on this purchase!

Earn 36 points on this!

Sign in or Sign up!
View full details
  • Release Date: 24/09/2024
  • Barcode: 9784805318348
  • Genre: Non-Fiction
  • Sub-Genre: Biography
  • Imprint: Tuttle Publishing
  • Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
The Real Osamu Dazai

The Real Osamu Dazai

Collapsible content

DESCRIPTION

A Life in Twenty Stories
"Dazai's brand of egoistic pessimism dovetails organically with the emo chic of this cultural moment and with the inner lives of teenagers of all eras." —Andrew Martin, The New York Times

"… translator O'Brien excels, his unembellished use of language allowing the comically dry but fraught moments of Dazai's prose to flourish."Asian Review of Books

Best-known for his novels No Longer Human and The Setting Sun, Dazai was also an acclaimed writer of short stories, experimenting with a wide variety of styles and bringing to each work a sophisticated sense of humor, a broad empathy for the human condition and a tremendous literary talent. The twenty stories in this collection include:

  • Memories — An autobiographical tale in which Dazai relates episodes from his own childhood and adolescence, showing his relationship with his family and his tendency towards introspection and self-dramatization

  • On the Question of Apparel — A comic tour-de-force in which Dazai examines the hold that fashion has over him and how it relates to his own pathetic self-image

  • A Poor Man's Got His Pride — A retelling of a story by 18th-century master of burlesque fiction Ihara Saikaku, about a fallen samurai who lives in poverty

  • The Sound of Hammering — A love story set against the backdrop of the rebuilding of Tokyo after the city was totally destroyed during World War Two

  • And sixteen other stories!

By turns hilarious, ironic, introspective, mystical and sarcastic, these stories present a fully rounded portrait of a talented writer who tried several times to take his own life and ultimately succeeded. An introduction by translator James O'Brien gives the background to Dazai's life and shows how the stories in this book, whether autobiographical or fictional, contribute to an understanding of one of Japan's greatest writers.

**Recommended for readers 16 years & up. Not intended for high school classroom use due to adult content.**

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

  • Contributor: James O'Brien (Translated by)
  • Translator: James O'Brien
  • DELIVERY & RETURNS

    UK Delivery:

    • Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
    • £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
    • UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

    International Delivery:

    • Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

    Dispatch and Delivery Times:

    • All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
    • UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
    • International estimated delivery times:
    • Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
    • USA: 7 to 15 working days
    • Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

    View our full delivery infomation here.

    • OVER

      2 MILLION PRODUCTS

    • 60 MILLION CUSTOMERS

      ACROSS 190 COUNTRIES