Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn

(Paperback)

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A collection of twenty-eight brilliant and strange stories, inspired by Japanese folk tales and written by renowned Western expatriate Lafcadio Hearn Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was one of the nineteenth century's best-known writers, his name celebrated alongside those of Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson. Born in Greece and raised in Ireland

Reviews

"[A]n attractive production . . . [with] a wonderfully witty and informative introduction by Mr. Codrescu."---Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
"[A] weirdin a good waycollection of stories, gathered from oral and written sources by Hearn."---Christopher Tayler, Harper's Magazine
"There is an excellent introduction by Codrescu . . . fascinating."---Damain Flanagan, Times Literary Supplement
"The pleasures of [Lafcadio Hearns] work are to be found in his delightfully bizarre hybrid renditions of Japanese folkloreparticularly of a genre called kaidan, or tales of the uncannyold stories that he blended with elements of horror and French Romanticism, the best of which are collected inJapanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn."---Christopher Carroll, New York Review of Books
"[Lafcadio Hearn] devoted . . . his writing life to gathering Japanese folk tales and translating them into English. This new book contains the best of them."---Susan Bale, The Hudson Review
"If readers want to see the range of Hearns interest in Japanese storytelling, then Codrescus edition amply demonstrates the range of Hearns interest in Japanese storytelling. There are, in addition to ghost stories, tales of lost loves, feudal loyalty and the contrast between appearance and reality."---John Butler, Asian Review of Books
"These tales beg for tellers. A great resource."---Jo Radner, Storytelling Magazine
"[Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn] is a uniquely transcultural kind of storytellingsomething that feels familiar to Western audiences despite being wrapped in entirely different histories and cultural codes. . . . While the stories in the book are over a hundred years old, they have a lot to offer to twenty-first-century readers."---Reid Bartholomew, World Literature Today
"The tales [in Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn] are chronologically structured, intelligently edited, and paced in a way that is navigable to a seasoned scholar or a curious pleasure reader. The stories themselves are compelling and beautifully crafted, and Andrei Codrescus introduction is equally enthralling. . . . Fans of Hearns writing may find Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn to be an ideal work. The collection contains more stories than any other compilation of his work."---Jeremy Simpson, Western Folklore
"Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn is recommended to anyone interested in the interaction between different cultures, particularly Japan and the West at the end of the nineteenth century, and to anyone interested in a good read of tales of the weird from outside a Greco-Roman context."---James H. Grayson, Folklore Journal
"Fronted by an authoritative introduction by Andrei Codrescu, these Japanese tales revive, once again, a writer, traveler, and translator whose presence at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries enrich and engage still."---Alan Graubard, Leonardo

Author Bio

Andrei Codrescu is a poet, novelist, essayist, and NPR commentator. His many books include Whatever Gets You through the Night, The Postmodern Dada Guide, and The Poetry Lesson (all Princeton). Twitter @acodrescu. Jack Zipes is the editor of The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (Princeton) and The Great Fairy Tale Tradition (Norton).