Lafcadio Hearn

Reproduction of the original: The Romance of the Milky Way by Lafcadio Hearn

Reproduction of the original: Some Chinese Songs by Lafcadio Hearn

Reproduction of the original: Glimpses of Unfamilar Japan by Lafcadio Hearn

Reproduction of the original: In Ghostly Japan by Lafcadio Hearn

Reproduction of the original: Two Years in the French West Indies by Lafcadio Hearn

Reproduction of the original: Japan An Atteempt at interpretation by Lafcadio Hearn

Reproduction of the original: Kokoro by Lafcadio Hearn

Reproduction of the original: Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan by Lafcadio Hearn

Upon his arrival in Japan in 1890, Lafcadio Hearn found himself enamored with the culture, people, and stories of the country, and would make Japan his home until his death in 1904. His collections of stories published during this time became the most popular of Hearn's writings, and earned him veneration worldwide as not only a great translator of Japanese mythology, but as a sensational teller of strange and wonderfully macabre tales. "Kwaidan" is most commonly translated as weird or horror tales, but to assign one word to the people, places, ghosts, and gods in this work, one can only use the word strange. This collection of supernatural tales includes twenty stories translated from old Japanese texts. Hearn was made a professor of English literature in the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1895, and is today revered by the Japanese for providing significant insights into their own national character. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Stray Leaves from Strange Literature - Fantastics and other Fancies is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition . Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was instrumental in introducing Western readers to Japanese culture and literature. Raised in Dublin and a longtime resident of the United States, the writer, translator, and teacher arrived in Japan in 1890 and spent the rest of his life there. His writings from Japan became his most popular works, and he was famed not only as an interpreter of Japanese myths but also as a teller of strange and macabre tales. This volume offers an eerie collection of Hearn's memorable depictions of the folklore, superstitions, and traditions of old Japan. Its chilling tales of the spirit world are interwoven with nonfiction reflections on the country's idioms, Buddhist proverbs, translations of haiku, and the ritual uses of incense. The spooky stories are populated by a pilgrim who attempts to climb a mountain of skulls, a dying wife who bequeaths her rival a sinister legacy, a ghostly beauty who leaves the world of the dead to revisit her samurai lover, and other mysterious characters from Japanese folklore.

The dead wreak revenge on the living, paintings come alive, spectral brides possess mortal men and a priest devours human flesh in these chilling Japanese ghost stories retold by a master of the supernatural. Lafcadio Hearn drew on the phantoms and ghouls of traditional Japanese folklore - including the headless 'rokuro-kubi', the monstrous goblins 'jikininki' or the faceless 'mujina' who stalk lonely neighbourhoods - and infused them with his own memories of his haunted childhood in nineteenth-century Ireland to create these terrifying tales of striking and eerie power. Today they are regarded in Japan as classics in their own right. Edited with an introduction by Paul Murray

A collection of twenty-eight brilliant and strange stories, inspired by Japanese folk tales and written by renowned Western expatriate Lafcadio HearnLafcadio 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, Hearn was a true prodigy and world traveler. He worked as a reporter in Cincinnati, New Orleans, and the West Indies before heading to Japan in 1890 on a commission from Harper’s. There, he married a Japanese woman from a samurai family, changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo, and became a Japanese subject. An avid collector of traditional Japanese tales, legends, and myths, Hearn taught literature and wrote his own tales for both Japanese and Western audiences. Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn brings together twenty-eight of Hearn’s strangest and most entertaining stories in one elegant volume. Hearn’s tales span a variety of genres. Many are fantastical ghost stories, such as “The Corpse-Rider,” in which a man foils the attempts of his former wife’s ghost to haunt him. Some are love stories in which the beloved is not what she appears to be: in “The Story of Aoyagi,” a young samurai narrowly escapes the wrath of his lord for marrying without permission, only to discover that his wife is the spirit of a willow tree. Throughout this collection, Hearn’s reverence for Japan shines through, and his stories provide insights into the country’s artistic and cultural heritage. With an introduction by Andrei Codrescu discussing Hearn’s life and work, as well as a foreword by Jack Zipes, Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn provides a unique window into one writer’s multicultural literary journey.

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