Osamu Dazai: 11 books

Scholars and fans often divide the career of Dazai Osamu (1909-1948) into three periods--early, middle, and late. The early and late periods tend to get all the attention, but in fact Dazai was at his very best in the middle period, which corresponds roughly to the years of the Pacific War. All the stories...

Momotarō, Click-Clack Mountain, The Sparrow Who Lost Her Tongue, The Stolen Wen, Urashima-san . . . The father reads these old tales to the children. Though he's shabbily dressed and looks to be a complete fool, this father is a singular man in his own right. He has an unusual knack for making up stories....

The Tragedy of Hamlet is the consummate tale of an introspective melancholic struggling to come to terms with the world he lives in; it is no surprise, then, that artists like Goethe and Coleridge have identified with this tortured character over the centuries. As one of Japan’s most famous and troubled...

The novella that first propelled Dazai into the literary elite of post-war Japan. Essentially the start of Dazai's career, Schoolgirl gained notoriety for its ironic and inventive use of language. Now it illuminates the prevalent social structures of a lost time, as well as the struggle of the individual...

The poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life...

This is a new translation of the 2nd best-selling novel in Japan (after Soseki's Kokoro); the other translation on the market is No Longer Human, trans. Donald Keene, pub. New Directions; (now 8th edition) and sells 40-50 copies per week title is widely adopted by classrooms as one of the main representatives...

Crackling Mountain and Other Stories features eleven outstanding works by Osama Dazai, widely regarded as one of the 20th century Japan's most gifted writers. Dazai experimented with a wide variety of short story styles and brought to each a sophisticated sense of humor, a broad empathy for...

This powerful novel of a nation in social and moral crisis was first published by New Directions in 1956. Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence...

Is a dog truly man's best friend? This story is one man's struggle with that question.

Nella prima metà del XX secolo, in Giappone si è assistito a un fenomeno dal valore artistico incalcolabile. I più importanti e talentuosi scrittori dell’epoca, oggi noti a livello internazionale, si sono cimentati nella stesura di racconti fantastici esplorando tutte le potenzialità del genere...

Poche cose tirano le corde del cuore, come il coraggio e la lealtà di un buon cane. Questa antologia raccoglie molte storie classiche di cani che illuminano il prezioso e indissolubile legame che si instaura tra l’uomo e il cane. Questi racconti sapranno trovare un piacere familiare negli amanti...