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Editorial Review Book Description
This collection features a brilliant new translation of the Japanese masterÂs stories, from the source for the movie Rashomon to his later, more autobiographical writings. ... Read more Customer Reviews (26) 
short and unsettling
Ryunosuke Akutagawa, as the introduction to this work will tell you, is one of the most well known and admired figures in Japanese literature.He was a sensitive and cynical man who wrote more than one hundred short before his early death in 1927.Like many people in the West, I think I was drawn to Akutagawa's work after viewing Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" and wanted to read the story (or stories, rather) upon which it was based.Just as Kurosawa was a master of the moving image, Akutagawa was a master of the written language and a keen observer of the human condition.
For those not familiar with Akutagawa's work, be warned: his dark, ironic and frequently pessimistic world-view is not for everyone.In his stories love, honor and decency are often frequently and unexpectedly replaced by jealousy, hatred and violence.This collection of stories can easily be read in one or two sittings, but it's unsettling effects will likely stay with you for long you put it down.
This is an excellent edition
With 17 other stories, and alot of extras. The preface is well written, in how the translation has changed some over the years, and explaining the era, pronounceation of certain words, etc. I really don't need to go into this book as enough good reviews have said alot. The book stands the test of time as brilliant.
Wonderfully written and highly entertaining
I was expecting a lot when I first opened Rashomon and 17 other stories, and I was not let down.Ryunosuke Akutagawa has an amazing style, and also led an interesting and difficult life.I recommend that anyone considering this product get it, whether it be from a used book store or a new copy.You won't be let down.
JAY RUBIN'S TRANSLATION: BE NOT DECEIVED BY EXCELLENT COVER!
Please, this refers to the Jay Rubin translation with the Barefoot Gen style graphic cover. Do not be deceived: This is not a "graphic novel" representation of the seventeen Akutagawa short stories in the style of the excellent and important historical Barefoot Gen series. You cannot tell from the Search Inside feature generously provided, which refers to another edition and another translator. This I refer to to is the Jay Rubin translation published by Penguin in 2006, and already available very economically. It is not a graphic novelization like Gen; it is the straight presentation of an excellent translation highly recommended to the thoughtful reader of advanced short stories.
Other reviewers have mentioned Kafka. I would add the early symbolist stories of James Joyce presented in cold realist style. But please do not categorize nor pigeon hole these profound presentations of reality from a meditative, Asian perspective. Enter this world without fear and ready to learn. Come with your cup emptied, ready to fill and to fill it up again.
Other reviewers have adequately explicated this excellent and generous collection which arrives to my grateful hands today. Finally perhaps something will release Mr. Joyce long enough from my hands to consider another author, having studied so long and frequently the film of Rashomon. Criterion's excellent restoration and commentary are well worth acquisition and stand up under repeated viewing of their DVD (as they choose among HDTV formats). Please notice here the orignal stories (also included in the Criterion package with different translator- a crucial point of departure) and the transfer of titles.
A great book for a quiet day. A great book for mass transport if you can focus in silence. I cannot destroy the tales by a clumsy attempt at summary. REpeated reading is rewarded by more profound understanding, just as walking through a village every day for a year will finally grant some slight perception of its realities and rhythms. I wish these were available on audio book as my over-worn eyes fade in to the gloom.
Rashōmon
I bought the new Penguin Classic, Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Japanese author, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927), with the intention of furthering my knowledge of Japanese fiction and its writers beyond Mishima and the spaghetti obsessed Murakami. What I found in this collection is an interesting mix of stories providing an adequate introduction to Akutagawa, but not enough, perhaps, to interest me further.
Preceded by a foreward by the aforementioned Haruki Murakami, the collection is split into four parts by translator Jay Rubin. This division is to differentiate the works between different parts of the author's short life much like Picasso's output can be pigeonholed into such periods as blue and rose. So, we have his early retelling of Japanese legends and anecdotes through to conflicts between native religion and Christianity missionaries, on to modern works highlighting both tragic and comic circumstances, before reaching his biographical work in which he showcased his own madness.
For me, the earlier stories of Akutagawa proved more interesting. Rashōmon, which provided the title for Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film, is followed by In A Bamboo Grove, the story upon which the film was based. The Nose, a comic tale of vanity, is followed by the great Dragon: A Potter's Tale, which in turn is followed by the wonderful, albeit predictable, Hell Screen, a story about an artist who requires to see his subject matter so that he may capture it on canvas; thus, when commissioned to paint Hell, he sets about having his vision of Hell recreated before him so that he may recreate it with measured strokes.
Of the later stories there are few standouts, although that may just be my preference for stories set in a highly romanticised medieval Japan than in a period (the 1920s) in which I know little of the nation. The stereotypical legends of samurai, peasants, and overlords sit far more comfortably with me than a beautiful history deeply influenced by western imports. One of the better stories is Horse Legs, a Kafkaesque tale in which a Japanese Gregor Samsa wakes to find that he has equine legs, complete with hooves, and there follows comic situations as he attempts to hide his secret from everyone, notably the wife whom he shares his bed. The Writer's Craft was another story that sat well with me, a tale about how the appreciation of an author's work is not determined by the time put in but by how others interpret it within their own lives.
The collection gathers together a blend of Akutagawa's well known short pieces in addition to a bunch of stories translated to English for the first time. While some of these freshly translated stories appealed, I couldn't help feel it was a cynical attempt to force a few new tales on those already initiated with the author's work: one story, for example, is just a fragment of a longer unfinished piece.
Akutagawa's writing, at least in translation, is certainly vibrant and his stories come at you from all manner of narrators, the most common seeming to be told from the point of view of someone who witnessed the events but was not integral to the plot. Later stories, such as The Life Of A Stupid Man, show interesting attempts at style but the narrative (a series of numbered paragraphs with individual titles) is so personal that it would seem to be only of interest to friends and family of the author, in addition to Akutagawa scholars.
All in, this book serves to give me an introduction to the author and, with the extensive footnotes, a further understanding of different periods in Japan's history. But, given my indifference to many of the stories, especially Akutagawa's more personal pieces, I doubt I'll go in search of his previously translated works, although the occasional retelling of previous Japanese tales may be enough to pique my interest in much the same way a cookie may keep me satisfied until teatime.
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