赤い部屋

by Edogawa Rampo, 江戸川 乱歩

読みやすい現代漢字の「漢字モダン版」に加え、正字を使用した浪漫溢れる「漢字ルネサンス版」の２篇を収録！

異常な興奮を求め七人の男が集まった「赤い部屋」で、ある男が語る。
「皆さんはびっくりなさるかもしれませんが……、人殺しなんです。本当の殺人なんです。」
しかもこの男、九十九の異なった殺人法を試したあげく、その罪悪にすら飽きはてたと――。
絶対に捕まらない「プロバビリティーの犯罪」を追求した男が、最後に選んだ犠牲者とは!?

このシリーズにのみ収録された漢字ルネサンス版は、漢字の効果により舞台となった大正時代から昭和初期を髣髴とさせます。時代を超えて江戸川乱歩の世界をお楽しみください。

Genres: Short Stories, Japanese Literature, Fiction, Japan, Horror, Classics

57 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 28, 2016

About the author

Hirai Tarō (平井 太郎), better known by the pseudonym Rampo Edogawa ( 江戸川 乱歩), sometimes romanized as "Ranpo Edogawa", was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery fiction.

Reviews

[cyannie · Rating 5 out of 5]

no one imagines that the law might overlook murder

bardzo krotkie, ale genialne

[Zuzia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Podobało mi się, ale chyba mam problem z wyższym ocenianiem krótkich książek:(
Plottwist na koniec był fajny tho, unexpected!

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

kinda cheating again but this was such a good story! probably one of my favorite edgar allan poe stories (not written by edgar allan poe). full of plot twists and turns of the screw and very cunning and witty. i'd definitely like to read some more edogawa rampo! best pen name ever

[Fumiko · Rating 5 out of 5]

* too stunned to make a review *

[Riki (˶˃⤙˂˶) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 💫

“Rather, I had a long-established, good friendship with him.
Nonetheless, I felt a peculiar desire to transform him into a corpse, smiling all the while and without him suspecting a thing”.

Ugh, that was spooky (｡>﹏<)

I liked the way the protagonist narrated the story. He had a sophisticated way with words, but still I felt he had this brutish side to him under the surface. At times there was even a kind of amusing, yet disturbing, nuance to his telling. I could find it funny even, what he’d done, along with him.

I think I liked this. The version I read had quite a lot of spelling errors and the grammar was a bit off in some places, but I tried to not let it cloud my judgement.

There was this bit where the child died, which was really tough on me, but that wasn’t really what brought my grade down. What I found less agreeable was the ending.

[nat ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“come now my poor, bored friends. isn’t this precisely the sort of thing that you wanted all along? isn’t this exactly the kind of excitement that you sought?”

[mish]

I enjoyed this a lot!

[&#x13286;ྀི ⋆｡˚꒰ঌ worm ໒꒱˚｡⋆&#x13287;ྀི · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this short story as a part of a greater Edogawa Rampo short story collection Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination.

A secret society meets to tell tales - and one man recounts how he has killed 99 people and gotten away with it. These "murders" are easy for him to get away with as "accidents" - unfortunate incidents that just so happen to end poorly for the victim involved.

While this premise could have been interesting had there been more thought/written about the plotting and avoidance of being caught - it was all just rather dumb. Mostly little incidents that are actual unfortunate accidents that happened - whether or not he had actual malice in wanting these people dead.

That being said, I quite like the idea of the ending (even if - again - the execution of it wasn't done to my tastes). It really puts on display the foolishness of it all- taking into account how dumb all the previous incidents felt as well.

While I'm not sure this story was worth the read for me- it was entertaining enough thinking about the ending.

[Vera Papp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Ranpo fella is really tricky! This story is one of those few cases where I even liked how the author cheated multiple times as this ‘fiction in fiction’ / ‘illusions in illusions’ kind of narration was carried out constantly. I did figure out some of the plot twists though, but in the end the whole plot managed to trick me.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tale about a secret society that functions as a leisure getaway for bored adults to tell enticing horror stories to cure their boredom and that of the other members. The character telling the story in this book frightened me to the core. It's absolutely incredible.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hilarious honestly

[Afra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wild narrative. Definitely worth reading.

[Adam Zakeriya · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️ OKAY, BUT NOT FOR ME

Centers on a confession framed as intellectual provocation, the book draws the reader into a claustrophobic space of obsession and self justification. The premise promises psychological depth, but the execution remains narrowly focused on the speaker’s fascination with his own transgression.

The narration leans heavily on shock as substance and interior reflection circles the same ideas without developing them. What is presented as insight often reads as fixation which limits the emotional and philosophical range of the story.

Its treatment of morality feels underexamined. The text gestures toward questions of guilt, responsibility, and desire, yet avoids engaging them beyond surface provocation. As a result, the disturbing elements linger without gaining clarity or meaning.

Overall, the story feels more interested in unsettling the reader than in exploring its implications.

[emil · Rating 5 out of 5]

YEET