The Siren's Lament: Essential Stories

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The sage Confucius travels to a kingdom ruled by a struggling duke, whose pursuit of virtue is threatened by his consort's desire for pleasure. A naive servant elopes with his master's daughter, only to be plunged headlong into a world of murder and corruption. Exhausted by a lifestyle of never-ending debauchery, a young prince finds himself in possession of a dazzling, beguiling mermaid.

These three short stories, in a gorgeous new translation by Bryan Karetnyk, distil the essence of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's shorter fiction: the co-mingling of Japanese and Chinese mythologies, the chillingly dark side of desire and the paper-thin line between the sublime and the depraved.

Reviews

'One of the greatest Japanese writers... his work explores the destructive power of erotic obsessions' - Guardian

'Junichiro Tanizaki may well prove to be the outstanding Japanese novelist of this century... It is through... detail plain in language, but poetic in conception, that the blood of Tanizaki's rich and mysterious art pulses' - Edmund White

'Japan's great modern novelist. Tanizaki created a lifelong series of ingenious variations on a dominant theme: the power of love to energize and destroy' - Chicago Tribune

'Tanizaki writes with an unabashed sensuality' - John Updike

'Tanizaki - like no other writer - mined the realm of forbidden fantasies. From subtle eroticism to full-blown pathology, he made poetry of pleasure and torment'' - Japan Times

Author Bio

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki is widely considered to be one of Japan's most important writers. Born in Tokyo in 1886, he began his literary career in 1909 and published numerous plays, essays, novels and short stories. His writing is characterised by ironic wit, subtle family dynamics and charged, fraught depictions of sexuality and identity. The prestigious Tanizaki Prize is named in his honour.