Bøker av Natsume Soseki

An NYRB Classics OriginalA humble clerk and his loving wife scrape out a quiet existence on the margins of Tokyo. Resigned, following years of exile and misfortune, to the bitter consequences of having married without their families’ consent, and unable to have children of their own, Sōsuke and Oyone find the delicate equilibrium of their household upset by a new obligation to meet the educational expenses of Sōsuke’s brash younger brother. While an unlikely new friendship appears to offer a way out of this bind, it also soon threatens to dredge up a past that could once again force them to flee the capital. Desperate and torn, Sōsuke finally resolves to travel to a remote Zen mountain monastery to see if perhaps there, through meditation, he can find a way out of his predicament.        This moving and deceptively simple story, a melancholy tale shot through with glimmers of joy, beauty, and gentle wit, is an understated masterpiece by one of Japan’s greatest writers. At the end of his life, Natsume Sōseki declared The Gate, originally published in 1910, to be his favorite among all his novels. This new translation captures the oblique grace of the original while correcting numerous errors and omissions that marred the first English version.

Features a portrayal of an artist who opposes convention and logic, and shuns emotional involvement. This book is a haikuesque novel infused with the author's musings on art and nature.

I, ladies and gentlemen, am a cat. I still don't have a name.Once a stray kitten, the narrator of this story is now a noble and insightful observer of the bizarre and funny foibles of the human beings in his midst. Enter the upper middle-class world of Meiji-era Japan where a world-weary feline has ample opportunity to dissect the strange ways and convoluted conversations of human people. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, this is the whimsical adventure of a very special cat.'A biting satire of Meiji-era Japan told through the eyes of a sardonic street kitten' Jessie Burton, Guardian'A mordantly comic evocation of Soseki's deep pessimismabout his own humanity and indeed about humankind in general' Lit Hub'A nonchalant string of anecdotes and wisecracks, told by a fellow who doesn't have a name, and has never caught a mouse, and isn't much good for anything except watching human beings in action' New YorkerTRANSLATED BY NICK BRADLEY

"Soseki is the representative modern Japanese novelist, a figure of truly national stature." -- Haruki Murukami One of the best-selling novels of all time in Japan: a modern classic about love, loneliness and profound social change A classic of modern Japanese literature, with over 7 million copies sold in Japan alone, told through the relationship between a young man and an enigmatic elder. Left alone in the seaside city of Kamakura, a young student is drawn to an enigmatic older man who swims at the same beach. He makes the older man's acquaintance, and soon comes to refer to him as Sensei. As their friendship grows, the young student becomes more and more intrigued by the secrets that haunt Sensei, the mysteries of his past that have compromised his present. Against the backdrop of the end of the Meiji era and the rapid modernisation of Japanese life, their relationship endures despite the distance that Sensei maintains - until one day, the young man receives a letter that divulges the full story of his past. One of the most popular and admired works of Japanese literature, Kokoro is a profound yet intimate picture of a changing Japan, and a timeless meditation on love, honour and friendship.

This famed collection of ten connected stories or dreams has a surrealistic atmosphere. The author, Natsume Soseki, is a novelist and scholar of English literature. He ranks with Mori Ogai (1862-1922) as major figure in modern Japanese literature. Among his works, Wagahai wa Neko de Aru (I am A Cat) and Bochan (Master Darling) are especially known to almost every Japanese and are read even by primary school pupils. His portrait is printed on the Japanese 1,000-yen note.

Ten Nights' Dreams (¿¿¿, Yume J¿ya) is a classic written work from the Japanese master Natsume Soseki. Originally published in 1908, it announced the emergence in Japanese literature of a modernist and impressionistic mode. Short vignettes with fantastic, tragic, or magical events convey an exquisite sensibility compounded with stark realism. Love, honor, duty, artistry, desire, despair, and regret all shape events in the dream-world. The stories themselves suggest echoes of meanings beyond the failures of rational sense-making. Ten dreams-each unique and arresting-form a panorama of life and feeling, at once universal and intensely present."Our Cat's Grave" is a brief but heartfelt monody for a feline companion. Encompassing both the affection and the neglect, it becomes a meditation on empathy and helplessness, and on the transience of life and the persistence of memory.

Botchan is one of Japan's most popular novels for young people for its meditations upon Japanese culture, lively characters, and coming-of-age theme.The titular character is a young, headstrong and reckless youth who is nevertheless possessed of a serious sense of honor and integrity. Although his temper and impulsiveness create problems, Botchan's moral convictions underpin his journey: indeed, whether he will compromise his morals is the central question. After taking a job as a junior teacher in a local middle school, Botchan comes into conflict with Red Shirt; his school's eloquent but manipulative and conniving head teacher. Vying for the hand of a local beauty, Red Shirt will stop at nothing to achieve his aims, using his position and the system to undermine or defeat others. However a hot tempered but justice-seeking mathematics teacher, Yama Arashi, is determined to oppose such underhand behavior. Who will Botchan side with in the end?

The Miner is the most daringly experimental and least well-known novel of the great Meiji writer Natsume Soseki. An absurdist tale about the indeterminate nature of human personality, written in 1908, it was in many ways a precursor to the work of Joyce and Beckett. The result is a novel that is both absurd and comical, and a true modernist classic.

Botchan is a modern young man from the Tokyo metropolis, sent to the ultra-traditional Matsuyama district as a Maths teacher after his the death of his parents. Cynical, rebellious and immature, Botchan finds himself facing several tests, from the pupils - prone to playing tricks on their new, na ve teacher; the staff - vain, immoral, and in danger of becoming a bad influence on Botchan; and from his own as-yet-unformed nature, as he finds his place in the world. One of the most popular novels in Japan where it is considered a classic of adolescence, as seminal as The Catcher in the Rye, Botchan is as funny, poignant and memorable as it was when first published, over 100 years ago.In J. Cohn's introduction to his colourful translation, he discusses Botchan's success, the book's clash between Western intellectualism and traditional Japanese values, and the importance of names and nicknames in the novel.

Deals with the friendship between a young man and an enigmatic elder whom he calls Sensei.

One of Soseki's most beloved works of fiction, the novel depicts the 23-year-old Sanshiro leaving the sleepy countryside for the first time in his life to experience the constantly moving 'real world' of Tokyo, its women and university. In the subtle tension between our appreciation of Soseki's lively humour and our awareness of Sanshiro's doomed innocence, the novel comes to life. Sanshiro is also penetrating social and cultural commentary.