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Mujeong - The Heartless: Hermes Publica's Translation
"What is love, when a nation is lost? What is duty, when the heart is divided?"
Set against the backdrop of a Korea trembling between tradition and modernity, The Heartless follows Lee Hyeong-sik—a young, educated man—torn between two the gentle and graceful Seon-hyeong, and the passionate, tragic Yeong-chae. As he journeys through floodwaters, farewells, and fevered revelations, Hyeong-sik must confront not only his own wavering affections but the moral paralysis of a colonized people. His indecision becomes a metaphor for an entire country at a crossroads.
A revolutionary work in every sense, The Heartless (1917) is widely considered Korea’s first modern novel. Yi Kwang-su crafts an unforgettable story of love, social change, and national awakening, where the personal is inseparable from the political, and where to love truly means to act. Passionate, prophetic, and piercingly human, this novel continues to challenge, inspire, and speak to the beating hearts of readers today.
Set against the backdrop of a Korea trembling between tradition and modernity, The Heartless follows Lee Hyeong-sik—a young, educated man—torn between two the gentle and graceful Seon-hyeong, and the passionate, tragic Yeong-chae. As he journeys through floodwaters, farewells, and fevered revelations, Hyeong-sik must confront not only his own wavering affections but the moral paralysis of a colonized people. His indecision becomes a metaphor for an entire country at a crossroads.
A revolutionary work in every sense, The Heartless (1917) is widely considered Korea’s first modern novel. Yi Kwang-su crafts an unforgettable story of love, social change, and national awakening, where the personal is inseparable from the political, and where to love truly means to act. Passionate, prophetic, and piercingly human, this novel continues to challenge, inspire, and speak to the beating hearts of readers today.
476 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 29, 2025
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July 21, 2026
I am going to be very, VERY generous and assume the benefit of the doubt that the kindle edition I read (not this one, but seeing as no other edition on goodreads exists nor is there any reviews for the few that do exist, I am making my review on this edition), that HOPEFULLY this was not translated by AI. My hope rests in a few reviews I managed to find in blogs that basically are like "Yes, his writing style is this boring and formulaic."
But man. The translation genuinely has to be AI? Right? Surely not! AHHH. The "it isnt x or y, but z" formula that AI does is repeated ad nauseum here. It doesn't help that people who read the authoritative translation that is expensive on amazon confirm his writing style is already bad.
It is a shame. This book, content wise, feels like it isn't even interested in itself. Multi-year time skip after time skip, literally everything works out perfectly for our characters, there is zero central drama or tension! It feels as though Mr Yi just REALLY wanted this to be the first modern korean novel published. Some might say the book is supposed to be about a hope for a better future through the hard work and education of the Korean people. Sure. This could have been executed so much better however, and authors like Yi Sang and Kim Dong-in are SIGNIFICANTLY better from this era while also being quite realistic about the struggles and suffering under Japanese occupation and the violence of resisting.
Not to mention: Yi Kwang-su sold his soul to Japan and became a propagandist for them and told the Korean people that the best thing for them to do was to just submit to their Japanese overlords and hope for a better standing in the Japanese ethnic hierarchy of the new world after they won WW2 (which as we know doesn't happen). So much for working for the light in this cruel heartless world! Why bother keeping up the good fight when you can sell out for the other side.
Anyway! The book is quite banal, and I mean this in the sense of themes, motifs, etc. which is usually the exciting part for me. The story is the story, it will be what it will be. I enjoy quiet slow burners more, and the intellectually stimulating parts are important for me, and a book lands when this is executed well! This book does not do this. Sonhyong: represent modernity, Yong-chae: tradition and the obligations of the past, Hyongsik: The man who must navigate these two, embracing modernity (through education reform and his intellectual efforts) while balancing his obligations to the past, to the old Korea which still has hope to persevere while adapting to the new world. You don't need to read this book to get that. Every synopsis tells you this. That is all. It might try to spice it up as some sort of romantic drama but it truly isn't. Again the themes are banal, no intellectual effort is required, and the narrative itself is formulaic, contrived, and stale. Everything just works out so well and amazing through hard work! Compare that to other authors of the same era and see what they have to say, to the countless that were arrested and beaten and tortured who felt listless under the thumb of an empire that allowed them no room. This book just felt deaf and uninterested in itself. Yi kwang-su, the man who sold himself out to Japan. In the end this shouldn't be surprising, he sold out his artistic talents for less, with a book that feels like an attempt at simply being the first "modern novel" of Korea, and that is simply it.
I wish I could have liked this more, especially with a work so foundational to Korea. But alas, it seems poetry and short stories remain the way of literature in Korea, and there is not a single problem with that! Off, upward and onward, TO BETTER NOVELISTS (hopefully)!!!!!!!!!!
But man. The translation genuinely has to be AI? Right? Surely not! AHHH. The "it isnt x or y, but z" formula that AI does is repeated ad nauseum here. It doesn't help that people who read the authoritative translation that is expensive on amazon confirm his writing style is already bad.
It is a shame. This book, content wise, feels like it isn't even interested in itself. Multi-year time skip after time skip, literally everything works out perfectly for our characters, there is zero central drama or tension! It feels as though Mr Yi just REALLY wanted this to be the first modern korean novel published. Some might say the book is supposed to be about a hope for a better future through the hard work and education of the Korean people. Sure. This could have been executed so much better however, and authors like Yi Sang and Kim Dong-in are SIGNIFICANTLY better from this era while also being quite realistic about the struggles and suffering under Japanese occupation and the violence of resisting.
Not to mention: Yi Kwang-su sold his soul to Japan and became a propagandist for them and told the Korean people that the best thing for them to do was to just submit to their Japanese overlords and hope for a better standing in the Japanese ethnic hierarchy of the new world after they won WW2 (which as we know doesn't happen). So much for working for the light in this cruel heartless world! Why bother keeping up the good fight when you can sell out for the other side.
Anyway! The book is quite banal, and I mean this in the sense of themes, motifs, etc. which is usually the exciting part for me. The story is the story, it will be what it will be. I enjoy quiet slow burners more, and the intellectually stimulating parts are important for me, and a book lands when this is executed well! This book does not do this. Sonhyong: represent modernity, Yong-chae: tradition and the obligations of the past, Hyongsik: The man who must navigate these two, embracing modernity (through education reform and his intellectual efforts) while balancing his obligations to the past, to the old Korea which still has hope to persevere while adapting to the new world. You don't need to read this book to get that. Every synopsis tells you this. That is all. It might try to spice it up as some sort of romantic drama but it truly isn't. Again the themes are banal, no intellectual effort is required, and the narrative itself is formulaic, contrived, and stale. Everything just works out so well and amazing through hard work! Compare that to other authors of the same era and see what they have to say, to the countless that were arrested and beaten and tortured who felt listless under the thumb of an empire that allowed them no room. This book just felt deaf and uninterested in itself. Yi kwang-su, the man who sold himself out to Japan. In the end this shouldn't be surprising, he sold out his artistic talents for less, with a book that feels like an attempt at simply being the first "modern novel" of Korea, and that is simply it.
I wish I could have liked this more, especially with a work so foundational to Korea. But alas, it seems poetry and short stories remain the way of literature in Korea, and there is not a single problem with that! Off, upward and onward, TO BETTER NOVELISTS (hopefully)!!!!!!!!!!
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