Kokoro

by Natsume Soseki

Overview

A nineteenth-century Japanese novel concerned with man's loneliness in the modern world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780720614183
Publisher:	Owen, Peter Limited
Publication date:	02/01/2007
Sold by:	INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	828 KB

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