This is an interesting collection, albeit not for me. The translation is very well done, but I found the stories very ‘male’ – but then they are written by a man at a time when women were usually considered insignificant. He appears to have had a low opinion of women, although he was married (his wife and children are briefly mentioned – he committed suicide aged 35 when he had three children aged around 15,13 and 10). I could appreciate the writing and style but didn’t like the stories. For example, in ‘The Spider’s Thread’ some people interpret it as a moral tale saying selfishness is wrong. But I didn’t get that at all. The line “How terribly shameful it all must have seemed, brothers and sisters, in the eyes of Lord Shakyanumi” for example, made me think the opposite – that in fact the story was sneering at Buddha Shakyamuni and Buddhist teachings.
Anyway, regardless of whether or not I liked it, it was horrible to look directly into his mental state via the final story (the frequent name dropping of Dostoevsky made me think he was desperate to be compared to him). It’s terrible that he got to the point where he felt he had to kill himself. The overall feeling I got from his work was that he only ever saw the world in relation to himself, and never others. Perhaps I have totally misinterpreted him, which if so, is unfortunate – but I probably won’t be reading more.

This is my first encounter with Ryunosuke Akutagawa. I have previously read other classic Japanese literature, but I think some of these short stories may be my new favourites. I have also read other reviews that some of the translations are better by other translators, and so I will be looking to find different versions later on to compare. I can see why this author’s work is still popular even today. His storytelling is amazing! I loved the Heaven\Hell aspect in many of them, although many contain violence and despair.

If you are like me and haven’t read Akutagawa’s works yet, I would suggest picking something like this up first. I very much enjoyed this collection and will be looking for more! Thank you to NetGalley and Steerforth Press for the ARC!

Japanese literature tends to be a bit hit-or-miss for me, and this is especially true of the classics including the works of Akutagawa. Having read Rashomon, I had a sense for the authors style and decided to give this collection a try.

The collection indeed also proved to be a bit hit-or-miss as well. While some stories such as "Hell Screen" and "Murder in the Age of Enlightenment" were quite engaging and generally had a pacing and plot that felt well constructed, others felt meandering and weak. I couldn't help but wonder if some aspects of this Japanese master's craft had been lost in translation, though it may also simply be those stories didn't suit my taste.

Additionally, regarding the Kindle eBook itself, the formatting seemed very strange and/or not present. In particular, there was little break for stories with none of the usual font changes one expects to delineate between chapters. Words were sometimes broken between lines in strange ways and in general it seemed very messy. As this was an ARC, these formatting changes may be fixed in the final copy but I thought they were worth mentioning as they made the reading experience rather unpleasant.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher to for giving me access to this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pushkin Press offers Murder in the Age of Enlightenment, another in it's valuable Essential Stories series. Ryunosuke Akutagawa wrote over 150 short stories during his short life in early 20th century Japan. Western readers may know him as the author of "In a Grove" (included here), the inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's classic 1950 film Rashōmon. He was an inspiration to both Kobo Abe and Haruki Murakami and it is clear how he influenced their vision in fiction.
The seven recently translated stories in this volume are fascinating in their themes of murder and madness with an effective balance of plot and character and shadows of the authors lifelong preoccupation with his own mental and physical fragility. I highly recommend these gems, best read one at a time to allow time for mulling and letting pieces fall into place.

Seven stories of wickedness from a popular Japanese writer of the early twentieth century, whose short stories inspired Rashōmon. Reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe and even Fyodor Dostoevsky, these tales feel fresh and clever if a bit exaggerated for our contemporary tastes. Most involve murder and madness; my favorite is the long story "Cogwheels," in which a writer mainly goes around doing extremely ordinary things, and yet as his paranoia escalates, there is a riveting sense of menace to it all. Recommended for fans of Japanese literature and twisty, lurid late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century short fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this in advance of publication.

I muss confess that my experience with Japanese literature is quite poor. I have read a couple of Murakami’s books, of course, as well as “Convenience Store Woman” by Murata, and that is more or less all.

So when NetGalley gave me the possibility of reading this one, by an author I have never heard of, I was very excited.

And I can say, that this has been one of my most pleasant bookish discoveries in a long time.

The book presents the reader with seven newly translated “essential stories” by the Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

Akutagawa belongs to the Neorealism movement that took place at the end of the First World War. The majority of his work consists of short stories and they are a mixture of a kind of magical realism, religion and Japanese idiosyncrasy.

THE FIRST FOUR STORIES

1. The Spider’s Thread: This was my first contact with Akutagawa so I was trying to figure out what was this for a style. The story was a bit confusing because of all the different elements mixed together. This calls for a re-read.

2. In a Grove: It is in essence a detective novel, where a murder happens, and the reader tries to understand what really happened and who the killer is, by the different points of view of the people involved. Immensely interesting.

3. Hell Screen: This one is probably my favourite. The influence I felt the most while reading it, was the one of Edgar Allan Poe. The main character, the painter Yoshihide, is a very wicked man whose only soft point is his daughter. However, he will risk everything which is dear to him in order to achieve perfection in his art. So to speak, “the end justifies the means” elevated to its maximum degree of wickedness. Amazing story, spectacular execution, and beautiful, lyrical language.

4. Murder in the Age of Enlightenment: It gives name to the whole collection. The story is the tale of a man called Kitabatake who, before committing suicide, writes a letter to a couple, telling them of a murder he had committed long time ago which involves the wife. It is interesting to read, (especially knowing that Akutagawa himself committed suicide) but not my favourite. It felt like something was missing.

THE LAST THREE STORIES

5. The General: This one was quite confusing for me and I struggled to get into it. The story mixes different time periods and it has a bigger amount of characters than the previous ones, so I ended up mixing them all and not understanding completely what had happened. The story line explores the horrors and hardships of soldiers during war.

6. Madonna in Black: Another one that I enjoyed a lot. It tells the story of a black Madonna statue which is supposedly cursed. A very interesting mixture of Japanese traditions and Western Religious believes and its influence in the Land of the Rising Sun.

7. Cogwheels: My second favourite. In this one we are basically inside the head of the narrator who, I believe to be Akutagawa himself. This narrator suffers from depression and at least two or three more mental illnesses. We are following him during some days of his life while he attends one of his acquaintances’ wedding and tries to write stories in his hotel room. Knowing, as I now know, how Akutagawa’s life ended, this story feels 100% autobiographical. We are actually reading Akutagawa’s thoughts and struggles, which makes this story the most special of the whole book.

FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT “MURDER IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT”

Summing up, I want more ;)

As I said before, unfortunately I didn’t know this author. As it always happens with writers who are not North American or British, they don’t reach the general public, at least this is my feeling.

So I am very happy and grateful to have had the possibility of discovering Akutagawa. As I said before, I can see in him reminiscences of Poe, who is one of my favourite short stories writers. So it is quite logical that I have liked Akutagawa so much.

Furthermore, I have the feeling that writing short stories must not be easy. Every short story contains a whole book in itself. The writer has to make the reader understand a whole story and present all the characters in a very reduced amount of pages. And in my opinion, Akutagawa is a master writing short stories.

His choice of vocabulary, his technique in describing events and characters make reading Akutagawa narrations a real pleasure. The mixture of reality and unreality, of paganism and religion, of western and eastern elements make Akutagawa one of the most special writers I have read lately.

---------------------------

Thanks to the publisher, Pushkin Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of “Murder in the Age of Enlightenment” in exchange for an honest review.

I always find it refreshing and interesting to read works that showcase a, for me, different country’s culture and mentality which I feel this short story collection. It’s always quite the treat!

Although I found the translation beautiful (and wishing I could read Japanese to get the full meaning of Akutagawa’s prose), I can’t say I connected to any of the stories very much, nor do I think I’ll re-read the collection any time soon.

Each time I finished a story, I had to wait for a bit to relax. So it took me a long time to read the book. I even read novels between the stories. Every story picks you up from where you are and makes you look into yourself deep down inside. You see, this is not a book that one can easily devour—one of a kind.

Genre: #Classics #PsychologicalRealism #Fiction

My rating: 10/5 GR:4,36/5

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is truly genius in the literature! I’m just really surprised that he isn’t as famous as other his time writers from Europe and America. He committed suicide in 1927, he was 35 years old, through his short lifetime, he wrote over 150 short stories. Since 1935 there is a yearly (awarded twice a year) literary award bearing Akutagawa's name.

As of this book, I’m truly impressed and grateful. Grateful for this wonderful translation made by Bryan Karetnyk! I will be honest, I had to use dictionary few times, but it’s simply because there are so many words in Japanese that are not translatable, translator has done an INCREADIBLE job translating them near to original meaning. Impressed, because Akutagawa managed to put so much psychological sense in his short stories, I honestly can’t believe that they were written almost 100 years ago!

Two stories that impressed me the most is the “Hell screen” and “The General”. They are just so realistic; I can perfectly imagine those situations. Interesting how Akutagawa is talking about Divinity and hell in his stories, there are moments full with absurd, madness and human greed. “Hell screen” seemed a bit strange at the beginning, but towards the end author has shown endless amount of human greed, which is terrifying.

I will repeat myself again, Akutagawa is truly master of the words! He creates incredible vivid scenes, which is very impressive for such a short story. I’m grateful that I'm living in the time when almost everything can be translated, shame that it’s taking such a long time. I will remind you once again, that all his stories were written almost 100 years ago, and still many of them still haven’t been translated.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone. It’s a classics book that simply needs to be read. I have always believed that Japanese literature bears something unique and this book has proven it once again. I will definitely read more of Akutagawa's stories in the future.

Thank you #Netgalley and #PushkinPress for this wonderful ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for giving me the ARC for exchange of honest review.

This book contains a few short stories written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and translated by Bryan Karetnyk. It was a classic short stories created by Ryunosuke back in the 1920s. Age of Enlightment was referred to the era in Japan where an intellectual movement that emerged around the time of the Meiji Restoration and that was particularly active in the 1870s in the westernization phase of Japan's modernization effort.

As per the book title mentioned "Murder" ,yes this book served as the title should be. Every short storied contained a murder happened including suicidal thoughts. Almost all stories have the writer's POV and hence as if the writer wrote his memoir. There is a story also described the writer himself was fighting for his mental health problem hence suicidal thoughts.

The usage words and sentences are beautiful, poematic and lyrical. Good translation after all. As you read and enjoyed the language, you might be forgetting that these short stories contains murders. These short stories reminds me of Stephen King's . It is not a horror but might left some mystery trace in each stories.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

I loved the short stories in this collection and I'm obsessed with Hell Screen and In the Grove! I really liked the author's take on what would have normally been a universal tale of redemption.

I've wanted to read something by Akutagawa for a while, so I was pleased when I saw this collection available for request on NetGalley. I really enjoyed the style of the prose, and the stories, which ranged in theme, all had something interesting to say, so that, with the exception of 'The General', which I struggled to get into, I had fun reading them all. These are perfectly crafted short stories that offer just the right balance of plot and character development, and I would certainly be keen to read more of Akutagawa's works in the future. If you are looking to sample works by classic Japanese authors, you will do well to give Murder in the Age of Enlightenment: Essential Stories your attention. Overall it was a 5-star read for me.

Thanks NetGalley, Pushkin Press for an Arc to review.
This was a very interesting collection of intense short stories varying in all fields.
Some pure literature, some horrifying, unsettling and magnificent.
I utterly loved it.

Once again a 'Selected Stories' from the nice people at Pushkin Press comes looking a little on the short side, which either raises gratitude (that we just get the very, very best of whichever author's involved) or doubt (that they were all that in the first place). Still, this handful of works were there to be looked over, and I ended up quite glad they were. We start with a short short, one that is almost more of a thought puzzle than a story, where we're left with a very open call on the morality of the characters to get us thinking. We also make judgement calls throughout the piece that follows, which inspired the movie "Rashomon" - but only seems to go further than that did. The third piece is quite florid, in that we can tell what this artist-with-demonic-intentions story is going to do at every page-turn, until it confounds those expectations by padding itself out, and again, and again...

The title story takes us over the halfway mark, but didn't feel of that great note to me, being a suicide note drawn out of a tragic love; the chap confessing in his note is engaging, but we're being told about his drama and not living it that freshly. Seemingly abandoning the morality tale trope and any genre, 'The General' looks at the title character's influence on his soldiers at rest and war. Next, the phrase 'be careful what you wish for' takes on added impetus when the second verb is swapped out for 'pray'. The final story is unfortunately one of the too-long ones, and very woolly. It's probably included for its mentioning of several of his other short stories, so acts perhaps as a career-capper. It also has some of the delusional, woozy feel the author may have lived as well as written, and within months of getting it published, he'd been so worried of following his mother into an asylum he'd killed himself, at the second attempt.

What these pages do then is prove that a hundred years ago Japan had some fertile oases of intelligent, modern-seeming, imaginative genre pieces on offer. Clearly they weren't all of a pure speculative style or genre, but this author's imagination certainly seemed to succeed with that as his intent. A couple of the pieces here, then, do frustrate for lack of a red pen, but this certainly provided for a fine taster of the man's works. Other 'selected stories' in the past have, it appears, featured more of his works, but books of his have always been thin on the ground, and so I'm grateful this crossed my path.