日本探偵小説全集〈4〉夢野久作

日本探偵小説全集 #4

by Kyūsaku Yumeno, 夢野久作

溢れる奇想を独自の筆致で描いた夢野久作。ここには小説における代表的業績を収めた。短編「瓶詰の地獄」は、構成の妙が読者を圧倒する珠玉作。中編「氷の涯」における北の港ウラジオの地に想う氷の涯の幻想は、想像を絶する内容の大長編「ドグラ・マグラ」とともに、まさに久作の独壇場である。
解説・由良君美　挿絵・夢野久作、横山隆一

804 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1984

About the author

Yumeno Kyūsaku (native name: 夢野 久作) was the pen name of the early Shōwa period Japanese author Sugiyama Yasumichi. The pen name literally means "a person who always dreams." He wrote detective novels and is known for his avant-gardism and his surrealistic, wildly imaginative and fantastic, even bizarre narratives.

Kyūsaku’s first success was a nursery tale Shiraga Kozō (White Hair Boy, 1922), which was largely ignored by the public. It was not until his first novella, Ayakashi no Tsuzumi (Apparitional Hand Drum, 1924) in the literary magazine Shinseinen that his name became known.

His subsequent works include Binzume jigoku (Hell in the Bottles, 1928), Kori no hate (End of the Ice, 1933) and his most significant novel Dogra Magra (ドグラマグラ, 1935), which is considered a precursor of modern Japanese science fiction and was adapted for a 1988 movie.

Kyūsaku died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1936 while talking with a visitor at home.