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The
Tower of London
Natsume
Soseki
Translated
and introduced by Damian
Flanagan
Published
by Peter
Owen
Click here for an
introduction to the book.
(Transcript from BBC radio.)
....
‘The
curtain veiling the mysterious things called the past rending itself in
two and reflecting ghostly light over the twentieth century is the
Tower of London.’
In
October
1900, a brilliant but largely unknown Japanese scholar arrived in
London to commence two years of intense study. The scholar would later
become the most celebrated Japanese writer of all time, Natsume Soseki,
and produce a dazzling collection of novels, memoirs, criticism and
short stories that form the bedrock of modern Japanese literature.
The
spectacle of a Japanese visitor to Victorian London was a rare one, and
Soseki’s acute observations contain unique snapshots of
London life.
(Click
here for an excerpt from
the book: 'Lodgings'.)
Against the
backdrop of these images, Soseki develops profound reflections on
universal themes. The river Thames is transformed into the river Styx;
the Tower of London becomes a gateway to the Underworld; mysterious
boarding houses and the spirits of the dead are encountered through
relics and memoir; time itself is regained and explored.
This
new
translation provides the perfect introduction to the work of one of the
world’s greatest authors, accompanied for the first time with
a comprehensive critical introduction, and a wry fictional account of a
meeting between Soseki and Sherlock Holmes.
Click here for Damian
Flanagan's speech at the book's launch.
The
speech is not only a thorough introduction to the book, but also
explains the background of its publication whilst contextualising
Natsume Soseki in the annals of world literature.
‘We
know little about the literary baggage that informs Japanese
preconceptions of Britain. It’s rather a shock to discover
that the most familiar and most compelling is a vision of Victorian
London at the turn of the 20th century by a young Japanese scholar, one
of Japan’s most famous modern writers, who lived for two
years in boarding houses and met almost no one. The Dickensian London
he brilliantly describes is so close to virtual reality that in one
short story Soseki himself meets Sherlock Holmes.’
– The Times
‘Scrupulously
and enthusiastically introduced and annotated’ –
Anthony Thwaite, Sunday
Telegraph
'What makes
this collection so fascinating is that Soseki viewed England as much
from the viewpoint of an anthropologist as from that of a creative
writer . . . one is never in doubt that one is in the presence of
greatness. The translator, Damian Flanagan, has provided an excellent
introduction and ample notes. I have always thought that of all English
novelists it is E. M. Forster that Soseki most resembles. Flanagan,
whether deliberately or not, catches Forster’s authorial tone
with uncanny accuracy.'
– Spectator
Available
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The Gate
Natsume
Soseki
Translated
by Francis Mathy
With
a new introduction by Damian Flanagan
Published
by Peter
Owen
One
of the central masterpieces of twentieth-century Japanese literature, The Gate describes
the everyday world of the humble clerk Sosuke and
his wife Oyone, living in quiet obscurity in a house at the bottom of a
cliff.
Seemingly
cursed with the inability to have children, the couple find themselves
having to take responsibility
for Sosuke’s younger brother Koroku. Oyone’s health
begins to fail, and news that Oyone’s estranged ex-husband
Yasui will be visiting nearby finally promotes a sense of crisis in
Sosuke and forces him temporarily to quit his life of quiet
domesticity.
Highly
prized for the beauty of its description of the understated love
between Sosuke and Oyone, the novel has nevertheless remained in many
ways mysterious. An analysis of the novel here by Dr Damian Flanagan
casts fresh insights into its complex symbolism and ideas, establishing
The Gate
as one of the most profound works of the modern age.
The
Gate (previously published as Mon) follows
the publication of an important new translation of Soseki’s The Tower
of London. Published
in cooperation with the Japan Foundation and the Sasakawa Foundation,
it is part of an international programme to bring one of
Japan’s most popular author to a new international audience.
A
sensitive, skilfully written novel by the most widely read Japanese
author of modern times.’ – Guardian
Soseki’s
prose is so delicate that each page is like looking at a set of dreamy watercolours.’
– Sunday
Telegraph
‘The
Gate is not so much tragic or comic as a graceful balance
between the
dispiriting and the humorous . . . The
Gate is surely the kind of
writing we need – a masterpiece of taste and clarity. Francis
Mathy’s translation must be warmly commended.’
– New
Statesman
Available
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Kokoro
Natsume
Soseki
Translated
by Edwin McClellan
With
a new introduction by Damian Flanagan
Published
by Peter
Owen
Damian Flanagan says in his new critical introduction "Kokoro" is
the Soseki novel that has been given most attention by critics and the
public in Japan. On one level, a meditation on the changing face of
Japanese culture and its attitudes to honour, friendship, love, death,
it is also a sly subversion of all of these things.
The novel centres
around the friendship between the narrator and the man he calls Sensei,
who is haunted by mysterious events in his past. As the friendship
grows and the narrator gets to know more about the man he so admires he
is increasingly intrigued by this hidden history. The Sensei, however,
refuses to reveal anything until the third part of the book when the
narrator is called away to look after his sick father and the truth is
revealed in tragic circumstances, etching itself onto the narrator -
and the reader's - "Kokoro" : Heart.
Natsume Soseki's importance to Japanese literature can be compared to
that of Dickens to Britain or Henry James to America. Like these
writers, his work now holds a hugely popular and important place in the
literary imagination of his country. Unlike them, his work is only
recently coming to the attention of readers from overseas.
Available
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Scandal
Shusaku
Endo
Translated
from the Japanese by Van C. Gessel
Published by Peter Owen
Suguro
is an eminent Catholic novelist, about to receive a major literary
award. So when a drunk woman he has never met before approaches him at
the award ceremony, claiming she knows him well from his regular visits
to Tokyo’s red-light district, she must surely be mistaken?
But
with a scurrilous press campaign damaging Suguro’s
reputation,
his sleazy doppelgänger appears more and more, as if
deliberately
trying to discredit him. He is sighted touring the love hotels and
brothels of Shinjuku; a leering portrait of him appears in an
exhibition — and Suguro is forced to undertake a journey into
Tokyo’s seedy heart in order to discover the dreadful truth.
Well
known for his novel Silence,
which is to be filmed by Martin Scorsese,
Endo here abandons his characteristic understated style in order to
write a dark metaphysical and psychological thriller that is reckoned
to be one of his best — and most original — works.
WITH
A NEW FOREWORD BY DAMIAN FLANAGAN
‘Endo’s
most remarkable novel . . . a superb dramatic triumph, a perfect
plaiting of strands into a single, most delicate crowned
knot.’
— Independent
‘A
remarkable work . . . Endo is one of the best novelists in the
world.’ — Francis King, Spectator
‘Endo
is a great thriller writer . . . Spine-chilling, erotic, cruel, full of
intellectual games . . . very powerful.’
— Sunday Telegraph
‘Scandal
is a subtle, eerie and fascinating book by a writer of rare perception
and disquieting honesty.’ — John Walsh, London
Evening
Standard
SHUSAKU
ENDO is widely regarded as one of the greatest Japanese authors of the
late twentieth century. Born in 1923, he won many major literary awards
and was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times. His novels, which
have been translated into twenty-eight languages, include The Sea and Poison, Wonderful Fool, Deep River and Silence. He died in
1996.
Available
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日
本人が知らない夏目漱石
(The
Natsume Soseki the Japanese Don't Know)
Damian Flanagan
Published by Sekai Shisosha
Has
Japan's greatest literary figure been misunderstood by the Japanese
themselves?!
In
this landmark study, Damian Flanagan provocatively argues that
the 'King of the Novel' is not Joyce or Proust, Tolstoy
or James, but none other than Natsume Soseki himself. By
investigating the themes of such classic novels as Sanshiro, And Then, The Gate, To the Spring Equinox and Beyond
and The Wayfarer,
and explaining how Soseki was fundamentally influenced by
figures as diverse as Nietzsche and the Pre-Raphaelites, an
entirely new understanding of Soseki's dazzling literary
career comes to light.
This book
is only available in Japanese.
Available
through Amazon.co.jp
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世界文学のスーパースター夏目漱石
(Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature)
Damian Flanagan
Translated by Ono Akiko
Published by Kodansha International
Available
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Damian
is also the author of numerous articles and short pieces for magazines
and newspapers in the UK.
He has also written for the English magazines Kansai Time Out and
the Kyoto
Journal in Japan. The image on
the left is an excerpt from The Tower of London
commissioned by the
Kyoto Journal.
Click here to read a
recent book review by Damian Flanagan.
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International
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