Essential Akutagawa: Rashomon, Hell Screen, Cogwheels, a Fool’s Life and Other Short Fiction

Akutagawa’s voice is one of the most remarkable in modern Japanese fiction: an acutely intelligent mind, a humiliated soul, engaging as readily with Baudelaire as with Confucius. These narratives and vignettes — some having received little attention until now — delicately dovetail ancient myth with modern reflection. Akutagawa combines Eastern sentiment with Western thought to astonishing effect, offering a uniquely moving insight into mental and social fragmentation.

This edition contains the following short stories:

Rashomon
The Nose
Kesa and Morito
The Spider’s Thread
Hell Screen
The Ball
Tu Tze-chun
Autumn Mountain
In a Grove
The Faint Smiles of the Gods
San Sebastian
Cogwheels
A Fool’s Life
A Note to a Certain Old Friend