A History of Japanese Literature

by William George Aston

Book by Aston, W. G.

Genres: Nonfiction, Japanese Literature, History, Poetry, Academic

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1899

About the author

William George Aston was a British diplomat, author and scholar-expert in the language and history of Japan and Korea.

Reviews

[William Schram · Rating 5 out of 5]

William George Aston's A History of Japanese Literature examines Japanese writings from a scholarly perspective. The spellings of a lot of places have changed over time since this was first published, and there aren't any modifications to the text. For example, the book spells Korea with a C. I didn't know they did that in the past.

The book surveys the poetry, mythology, short stories, and novels that emerged from Japan over its history. It covers the Tale of Urashima, the Tale of Susanoo defeating Yamato no Orochi, and many others. The book is wide in scope, but doesn't delve too deeply.

Along with the works provided, the book offers a historical perspective: who the Japanese people were at this time, how they lived, and so on. It was fascinating and well done. My only issue is the author writing it too early. It was the first one for a European audience, published in 1899.

I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[machinaheart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read parts of it.

[GONZA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a moralistic patronizing history of literature.... It has never happened to me that an author was commenting whether the books he was talking about were good for young reader or not .....

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with so many things, the number of stars has to do with the year read. This was the first and for seventy years the only history of Japanese literature in a European language.