Customer Reviews (2)

A compilation of folk stories from Japan
Lafcadio Hearn published a series of short stories to be printed in a famous periodical in US. These are a few of those stories. His approach is reminiscent of Washington Irving, Tales of Alhambra. That is to say, that the stories are part folk, part his own imagination or views. Just like a Gaugin's painting of Tahitian women, Mr Hearn "recreated" his own Japan. The stories and descriptions are beautiful, very atmospheric, and easthetic. They are a pleasure to read over and over.

A Very Rewarding Piece
The selection of works by Lafcadio Hearn shows the true Japan of ancient times. In his writings, there is a great deal of description and depth which allows the reader to fully understand how completely different it is from the Western world he came from. The first half deals with his surroundings-the garden he would watch for hours, his home where he would watch the townspeople go about their daily routines, the temples with their own unique legends and traditions. The second half of the book, though, is more interesting in that he describes the people in particular. Through his friends and those around him he tells exciting anecdotes that reveal the real Japan.I enjoyed this book very much and am glad I decided to purchase it. For anyone interested in learning about Japan following the beginning of the Meiji era (after 1868) this is definitely a good book to start with. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1869 a half-blind Greek-Irish teenager named Lafcadio Hearn came to Cincinnati, Ohio, and by the age of twenty-four became the city's most famous newspaper reporter on the strength of his lurid crime stories and bizarre explorations of the city's dark underside.

Fired in 1877 for his brief marriage to a black woman, he wandered from New Orleans to New York to the Caribbean before finally settling in Japan where, in a unique act of self-transformation, he became a Japanese patriot and patriarch.

Full of excerpts from Hearn's writing, Jonathan Cott's insightful portrayal of an extraordinary life recovers for a Western audience a unique figure of the nineteenth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Disappointing as a biography, better as a reader
I had expected Wandering Ghost to be a standard biography, but the number of long passages taken from Hearn's writings made me wonder what the author's intent was.At least half (or more) of the book is comprised of these lengthy passages from Hearn's newspaper work and other writings.

At times these quotes serve to move the book forward, but more often than not they bog it down, as in the inclusion of an entire newspaper story about a sensational murder -- some 13 pages that, while they served as a good illustration of Hearn's more florid prose style, served very little purpose biographically.The quoted passages are so numerous and at times so extraneous that it is frustrating to read this book as a biography. It's especially irksome when a five- or six-page lengthy quote is used when a one- or two-paragraph one would have easily sufficed.

Perhaps the problem is that I didn't pay sufficient attention to the publisher's description of Wandering Ghost as containing "generous selections" from Hearn's work, but even that did not prepare me for the amount of quoted material.Given the richness of the subject and wealth of material that Hearn left behind, it seems a shame that a more lucid biographical account of his life was not attempted.

Home is where the heart is
I wasn't prepared for what an excellent book this was.I have long been a fan of Lafcadio Hearn's Japan-themed books, and was interested in learning more about him and about what brought him to the country so long ago. But I figured the rest of his story would hold little interest for me.

Jonathon Cott has proven me wrong."Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn" shows a truly fascinating character, one who was eternally searching for somewhere to belong, one who's tastes and fashions were completely out of synch with the time he lived in, one who was chasing a dream so distant that he could only find it in the most remarkable of places, only to hold it for awhile and watch it slowly slip away.

Born of a Greek mother and an Irish father, Hearn was never accepted as a child.A half-breed, he was shunted from relative to relative until finally shipped off to the US to make his own way.There, his unique racial status allowed him access to both the white cities and the black ghettos, and his skills as a writer got him a job translating the forbidden culture for the newspapers.An acclaimed journalist, he accrued some degree of success until his then-illegal marriage to a black woman saw him fired, disgraced, and exiled to New Orleans.His mania for writing, his passion for "exotic" women, and his desire to go to the hidden corners of society to record and experience native folklore and traditions soon made him a pariah, and he was exiled again.After trying several tropical islands, hidden paradises and various adventures, an opportunity opened up for him to journey to the mysterious and unknown Japan.There he found acceptance, family, and his own peace at last.

What is truly remarkable about "Wandering Ghost" is that it is an auto-biography as much as a biography.It is filled with Hearn's writings; newspaper articles, personal letters, sketches on interesting characters and places, thoughts and reflections, a glimpse inside his head.Cott originally began with the idea of publishing some of Hearn's non-Japan related writing, but was overcome by the sheer bulk of it all and decided to sift through them and shape them into Hearn's story.Seeing all of this, I gained much more respect for Hearn as a writer as opposed to a mere chance observer of the fading Japanese culture. ... Read more

Book Description
A Japanese magic-lantern show is essentially dramatic. It is a play of which the dialogue is uttered by invisible personages, the actors and the scenery being only luminous shadows. Wherefore it is peculiarly well suited to goblinries and weirdnessess of all kinds; and plays in which ghosts figure are the favourite subject. -from "Of Ghosts and Goblins"In 1889, Westerner Lafcadio Hearn arrived in Japan on a journalistic assignment, and he fell so in love with the nation and its people that he never left. In 1894, just as Japan was truly opening to the West and global interest in Japanese culture was burgeoning, Hearn published this delightful series of essays glorifying what he called the "rare charm of Japanese life." Beautifully written and a joy to read, Hearn's love letters to the land of the rising sun enchant with their sweetly lyrical descriptions of winter street fairs, puppet theaters, religious statuaries, even the Japanese smile and its particular allure. A wonderful journal of immersion on a foreign land, this will bewitch Japanophiles and travelers to the East.Also available from Cosimo Classics: Hearn's Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life.Bohemian and writer PATRICK LAFCADIO HEARN (1850-1904) was born in Greece, raised in Ireland, and worked as newspaper reporter in the United States before decamping to Japan. He also wrote In Ghostly Japan (1899), and Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation (1904). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Japan through an old window.
I must admit that this review is tainted with bias.I read this book after staying in Izumo and Matsue on a week long trip to visit a good friend.In Matsue, Lafcadio is probably the most honored celebrity to have ever resided in the city.Statues, posters, honorary names of places abound with his image.I toured the house he lived in and describes in the book, and I became curious about this man I knew only in name.

So a week later I bought this book.It is a collection of his writings from 1891 and his first days in Japan to when he left Matsue just a few years later.The stories range from his personal favorite of telling ghost stories and fables of old, to his traveling adventures, which usually involve temples and festivals.Some stories are really edifying (especially when I had been to places he described), but I must admit that many times my attention was stretched thin and I grew bored.

Many moments in the book are enlightening and offer a glimpse of Japan and offer insights into the culture, but now after spending over a year here, I have to admit that most of these insights are a part of the past.Most of what is written is no longer around.Maybe it is because@I spend my time in Tokyo, but I feel somehow disconnected to the tales of festivals and people that filled Lafcadio's life over a hundred years ago.

But that is to be expected I guess.The true complaint I have is that after a few temples and shrines, every place seems the same in its confusing description, and it gets, if not redundant, old.The use of the Japanese language will prove confusing for people who have not studied the language.Even I, who is still slowly but surely learning, was stopped occasionally at a word thrown here and there.Also Lafcadio really does have a love for Japan.Sometimes it is easy to see why.Yet even though he never brings himself to admit it, he will often defend Japan at the expense of all things western.(The most foreboding was where he praises the loyalty of the common Japanese for their Emperor and how wonderful it is.Something that just 50 years later would be exploited and manipulated to horrific degrees.)

This is what half of the book is like.Other times there will be captivating stories that transcend time and bias and are completely absorbing.Lafcadio's prose are fluid and natural and I must admit make me jealous that I lack any such writing skill.It is captivating for exactly what the title says.It offers a glimpse into Japan that frankly does not exist anymore, at least that I know of. ... Read more

Book Description
Lafcadio Hearn was a prolific 19th-century writer with diverse experiences. He was born in Greece; educated in Ireland, France, and England; and thereafter resided in the United States, the French West Indies, and Japan. He is best known for his nonfiction, primarily his essays and newspaper columns, though he also wrote numerous stories that drew on the lore of different cultures. But he will always be remembered as the American writer who first wrote extensively about Japan and made Asiatic culture accessible to British and American readers. This reference is a comprehensive guide to Hearn's life and career. Included in the volume are hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries for individual works by Hearn and collections of his writings, for members of his family, and for the colleagues and acquaintances who figured prominently in his life. The entries summarize his views, reveal his keen perception, and demonstrate the breadth of his musings. Entries often cite works for further reading, and the volume also includes a bibliography. While the book is first and foremost a guide to Hearn, it also shows how Japanese society was first presented to the West. ... Read more

Book Description
A biographical and critical study of the great American interpreter of Japanese literature, life and culture. ... Read more

Book Description

"Carl Dawson's fascinating and eminently readable account of Hearn and his writings... is an ambitious undertaking, and within the limits of this short book, one that has succeeded."--Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature.

Book Description
Reprint of the 1936 edition. Oversized octavo. xvii p., 1 l., 444 p. front., plates, facsims. Lafcadio Hearn was born on the Greek Island of Santa Maura. His mother was Maltese and his father a Britisharmy surgeon of Anglo-Irish descent. When Hearn was two, his mother left him with an aunt in Dublin, who later sent him to prepare for the priesthood. At 19 he arrived in Cincinnati Ohio where he became a reporter. In 1874 he married a local black girl, resulting in the loss of his job. In 1890 Hearn was commissioned to go to Japan, but lost his job shortly after arriving. For a while he taught English, and eventually married Setsuko Koizumi, whose family adopted him. He changed his name to Yakumo Koizumi and became professor of literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo. During this happy time Hearn composed his best prose-minute examinations of Japan, its people, and its folkways. He has been extremely popular in Japan since. This standard bibliography of Hearn describes. It is by far the most comprehensive Hearn Bibliography cited in Besterman [2816] with 2500 titles described. The annotations are descriptions are quite detailed. ... Read more

Book Description