Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First of all, this is an curious selection of works. "Ten Nights of Dream" is a well-known piece in the canon of Soseki, but the other two works are much less renowned (with good reason, but I'll get to that). All were written relatively early in Soseki's career, and all deal in different ways with the uncertainty of living in the shadow of the anxiety, fear, and sadness of death.
"Ten Nights of Dream" (5 stars) is the first and best of this collection. It comes at an interesting time in Soseki's career and marks a turning point between the more humorous works of Soseki's early career (notably "I Am a Cat" and "Botchan") and his later, more serious and brooding works (including Sanshiro and Kokoro). The "dreams" are pure magic, wonderful and surreal stories that capture the beautiful fragility of the human condition. They are surprisingly dreamlike and ephemeral for a writer coming from the naturalist school, and have a unique style compared to Soseki's other works.
"Hearing Things" (3 stars) had a good concept for a story (the "rational man" has an internal struggle between his scientific mind and his superstitious heart) but the execution is rushed and the style disjointed. Soseki does not seem sure whether to make this a ghost story, a dark psychoanalysis, or a comedic affair. These problems are fatal for a story this brief, and I wonder why it was included in this collection.
"The Heredity of Taste" (4 stars) is a story that starts extremely well but finishes poorly. The story starts compellingly, as the narrator reminisces about his friend who has died in the Russo-Japanese war, again highlighting the fragility of human existence. The story shifts smoothly to a graveyard scene that combines a quiet elegance with youthful emotion. Unfortunately, the remainder of the story is extremely rushed (as Soseki, through the narrator, appears to apologize for) and the idea of the "heredity of taste" is added in a heavy-handed manner uncharacteristic of Soseki. This novella clearly could have used more time to develop, and probably could have been made into a successful novel. Fortunately, Soseki returns to some of these themes quite well in works like Sanshiro and Kokoro.
The translation itself (2 stars) is not very inspiring, and much of the beauty of Soseki's prose is lost. Even the title of "Ten Nights of Dream" seems a bit ungrammatical in this humble reviewer's eyes. Given that "Ten Nights of Dream" is the marquee story and at least one much better translation exists (the one by Kashima & Lorenz comes to mind) this particular compilation has little to offer. If you are interested in Soseki and are not sure where to start, I'd recommend one of his novels over this collection. If you are specifically interested in "Ten Nights of Dream", I'd recommend another translation. However, if you are interested in the other two stories this might be your only option in translation.
The stories average out to 4 stars, the translation gets 2 stars in my book ... that works out to 3 stars overall.
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This collection presents the prolific imagination of Soseki Natsume, Japan's all-time most beloved author. Ranging from humor to profound maturity, the works in this volume offer the full spectrum of Soseki's genius.They are among Soseki's best, and brilliantly display his temperament and thought, the richness of his humor, and the sureness of his satirical touch. Ten Nights of Dream comprises a collection of ten short stories of dreams. Couched in a surrealistic atmosphere, they reveal the attitudes of a major writer at a turning point in his career.
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