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倫敦塔・幻影の盾
イギリス留学中に倫敦塔を訪れた漱石は、一目でその塔に魅せられてしまう。そして、彼の心のうちからは、しだいに二十世紀のロンドンは消え去り、幻のような過去の歴史が描き出されていく。イギリスの歴史を題材に幻想を繰りひろげる「倫敦塔」をはじめ、留学中の紀行文「カーライル博物館」、男女間における神秘的な恋愛の直観を描く「幻影の盾」など七編をおさめる。
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1915
About the author
Natsume Sōseki
1,161 books3,481 followersNatsume Sōseki (夏目 漱石), born Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目 金之助), was a Japanese novelist. He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, kanshi, and fairy tales. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1000 yen note. In Japan, he is often considered the greatest writer in modern Japanese history. He has had a profound effect on almost all important Japanese writers since.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
December 24, 2018
Ah, Monsieur Sôseki! You and your love of kanji! It really made this a struggle.
I am not blaming Monsieur Sôseki for the difficulties I had reading "倫敦塔・幻影の盾" (and all the other short stories of the volume) but how languages change and evolve over time. This is Japanese, but not your everyday Japanese; it is a really difficult to read and get through one.
The book consists of different short works by Sôseki, including the ones on the title: his visit to the London Tower (a fictionalized account, by all means, where even London gets transformed into kanji) and one about a shield that becomes more complicated and convoluted and repetitive as it goes on and on and on and on... (like some little rabbit back on the day). Other works includes the alter ego of the author going to receive some soldiers coming back from a war and the alter ego remembering a friend who won't come back (still in the trenches, climbing, still in the trenches) and others of which I remember little because I was too busy trying to remember the meaning of the kanji that kept popping up.
And this is it. Sōseki is good; there are moments of brilliance in the book, and some humanistic and very nice depictions; at the same time he seems a little bit too much in love with his own writing. On top of that, the stories are not particularly interesting or fun, and sometimes it feels as if an introduction to some old good British (English?) folklore. All marred by the old Japanese that is used by the author. Try to read "El Quijote" in old Spanish, or Shakespeare. Even if you are a native speaker of the modern version of the language, they become a struggle. The same here. Getting some kanji you have never seen before or ever again in the middle of a sentence won't help with the reading.
More of a curio than anything else.
The best: yep, some moments of brilliance, some nice similes and imaginative moments
The worst: the kanji (not Sōseki's fault, but...); the stories are not really funny or exciting and sometimes you keep reading just because
Alternatives: uh... Morio Kita? Maybe other Sōseki? Dazai Osamu? Jun'ichiro Tanizaki? "Genji monogatari"?
6/10
(Original Japanese version; whatever that means in this case)
I am not blaming Monsieur Sôseki for the difficulties I had reading "倫敦塔・幻影の盾" (and all the other short stories of the volume) but how languages change and evolve over time. This is Japanese, but not your everyday Japanese; it is a really difficult to read and get through one.
The book consists of different short works by Sôseki, including the ones on the title: his visit to the London Tower (a fictionalized account, by all means, where even London gets transformed into kanji) and one about a shield that becomes more complicated and convoluted and repetitive as it goes on and on and on and on... (like some little rabbit back on the day). Other works includes the alter ego of the author going to receive some soldiers coming back from a war and the alter ego remembering a friend who won't come back (still in the trenches, climbing, still in the trenches) and others of which I remember little because I was too busy trying to remember the meaning of the kanji that kept popping up.
And this is it. Sōseki is good; there are moments of brilliance in the book, and some humanistic and very nice depictions; at the same time he seems a little bit too much in love with his own writing. On top of that, the stories are not particularly interesting or fun, and sometimes it feels as if an introduction to some old good British (English?) folklore. All marred by the old Japanese that is used by the author. Try to read "El Quijote" in old Spanish, or Shakespeare. Even if you are a native speaker of the modern version of the language, they become a struggle. The same here. Getting some kanji you have never seen before or ever again in the middle of a sentence won't help with the reading.
More of a curio than anything else.
The best: yep, some moments of brilliance, some nice similes and imaginative moments
The worst: the kanji (not Sōseki's fault, but...); the stories are not really funny or exciting and sometimes you keep reading just because
Alternatives: uh... Morio Kita? Maybe other Sōseki? Dazai Osamu? Jun'ichiro Tanizaki? "Genji monogatari"?
6/10
(Original Japanese version; whatever that means in this case)
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review