Kokoro

by Natsume Soseki, Edwin McClellan (Translator)

Overview

"Rich in understanding and insight."—The New Yorker
What is love, and what is friendship? What is the extent of our responsibility to ourselves and to others? Kokoro, signifying "the heart of things," examines these age-old questions in terms of the modern world.
A trilogy of stories that explores the very essence of loneliness, Kokoro opens with "Sensei and I," in which the narrator recounts his relationship with an intellectual who dwells in isolation but maintains a sophisticated worldview. "My Parents and I" brings the reader into the narrator's family circle, and "Sensei and His Testament" features the eponymous character's explanation of how he came to live a life of solitude.
Natsume Soseki (1867–1916), perhaps the greatest novelist of the Meiji period, remains one of Japan's most widely read authors. He wrote this novel in 1914, at the peak of his career, and it remains an excellent introduction to modern Japanese literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486451398
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	08/11/2006
Series:	Dover Books on Literature and Drama Series
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	890L (what's this?)

About the Author

Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916) was a Japanese novelist. Born in Babashita, a town in the Edo region of Ushigome, Sōseki was the youngest of six children. Due to financial hardship, he was adopted by a childless couple who raised him from 1868 until their divorce eight years later, at which point Sōseki returned to his biological family. Educated in Tokyo, he took an interest in literature and went on to study English and Chinese Classics while at the Tokyo Imperial University. He started his career as a poet, publishing haiku with the help of his friend and fellow-writer Masaoka Shiki. In 1895, he found work as a teacher at a middle school in Shikoku, which would serve as inspiration for his popular novel Botchan (1906). In 1900, Sōseki was sent by the Japanese government to study at UniversityCollege London. Later described as “the most unpleasant years in [his] life,” Sōseki’s time in London introduced him to British culture and earned him a position as a professor of English literature back in Tokyo. Recognized for such novels as Sanshirō (1908) and Kokoro (1914), Sōseki was a visionary artist whose deep commitment to the life of humanity has earned him praise from such figures as Haruki Murakami, who named Sōseki as his favorite writer.

Table of Contents

Part One: Sensei and I
Part Two: My Parents and I
Part Three: Sensei and His Testament

Editorial Reviews

"This elegant novel...suffuses the reader with a sense of old Japan." —Los Angeles Times 

"Soseki is the representative modern Japanese novelist, a figure of truly national stature." —Haruki Murakami

From the Publisher