quartet of Regressionism": Ango Sakaguchi Series (set of 4 Volumes in Total)
by J
About This Novel
The first domestic publication of Sakaguchi Ango's works in a series format; the standard-bearer of the "rogue faction" as famous as Dazai Osamu, a literary master highly respected by Kawabata Yasunari and Mishima Yukio; the prototype character of Japan's super popular animation "Bungou Stray Dogs", and the original novel of the popular animation "Ao no Literary" series. A collection of masterpieces of weird novels by Sakaguchi Ango, the standard bearer of Japan's postwar "rogue faction". This book contains a total of 10 famous novels by Sakaguchi Ango, namely "Under the Blooming Cherry Blossoms", "Zen Monk", "Nagahime and the Ear Man", "Idle Mountain", "Shidai Nagon", 5 strange novels, "Dr. Wind", "Eye of Arrogance", "About Incomprehensible Broken Love", "Idiot" and "The Woman Who Washed the Green Ghost's Loincloth". These 10 novels cover various stages of Ango's creative career and basically show the overall style of his novel creation. In particular, "Under the Blooming Cherry Blossoms" is the representative novel, which revolves around the lives of bandits and stolen brides. The story is interesting and strange, with a cold and strange atmosphere. It has the characteristics of a storybook novel and can be called the masterpiece of Japanese ghost story-style storytellers. Among the weird novels, "The Idiot" is the most famous. After being published in 1946, it was praised as "a model of Japanese post-war literature". The novel centers on a man fleeing with a mad woman during the war, reflecting Japan's wartime suffering and the madness of the people. Sakaguchi Ango's masterpiece of Kaidan and Weibo novels profoundly expresses Japanese classical cruelty and aesthetics, as well as reflections on the relationship between men and women during the war. The weird plot setting reflects his unique view of human nature, and has become one of the most popular Japanese classic novels among readers. "On Degeneration" is the representative work of Sakaguchi Ango, the standard-bearer of Japan's postwar "rogue school" literature. In addition to "On Degeneration", this book also includes 16 representative essays, including "On Degeneration", "The Emperor's Short Essay", "On Decadent Literature", "On Youth", and "A Death Test on Dazai's Love", for a total of 17 articles. Through these critical articles that overturned Japan's old moral order, Sakaguchi Ango called for the postwar Japanese to liberate themselves from the moral principles established by the old system, return to their natural humanity, and "fall" from the false clouds to the human world. The "fall" Sakaguchi refers to is to shed all hypocrisy and "return to the state of real people." For this reason, Sakaguchi Ango was hailed as a "great regressor" by Japanese intellectual circles and literary critics with his "loser philosophy" ideological level. "Ango Life Story" is a collection of Sakaguchi Ango's classic crime stories. This book is divided into two parts: "An Wu Life Talk" and "My Outlook on Life". In "Anwu Life Talk", the author transforms into a "street talker" and uses the collected notes of criminals to vividly restore crime stories and attach wonderful comments and miscellaneous remarks. Through the restoration and analysis of a hot case in Japanese society at that time, it pointed out the crux and ideological problems of society at that time in a sharp and humorous manner, and criticized the darkness of human nature. "My Outlook on Life" contains eight of his current affairs essays, combining the social events happening around him to interpret the bizarre social and life situations at that time. "Ango Life Story" was published in a single volume in Japan from the 1960s to the 1980s. After that, it was out of print for more than 30 years. In February 2019, a Japanese publishing house republished it in a single volume. This book is the first translation and publication in China. It is of great significance for domestic readers of Sakaguchi Ango to learn more about the author's thoughts and the situation of Japanese society at that time. "Continuous Murder" is the only full-length mystery novel written by Ango Sakaguchi. It subverts common sense criminal methods and inner games, and solves the shocking conspiracy behind eight murder cases. It is an immortal masterpiece in the history of Japanese mystery novels. The author sets the background of the story in the summer of 1947. At the mountain villa of Utagawa Tamon, a large Japanese conglomerate at that time, there were more than 20 scholars, poets, writers, doctors, etc. Who came to spend the summer. The interpersonal relationships were complicated and entangled with love and hatred. After receiving the threatening letter, eight murders occurred one after another, and the Utagawa family was destroyed. Throughout the process, the author does not use the "alibi" and "impossible crime" routines commonly used in mystery novels. It is obvious that the crimes are committed continuously, but it makes people unable to see a consistent motive, and even cannot predict the next victim. But there is a shocking conspiracy behind these murders. When this mystery novel was first serialized, the author attached a "Challenge to Readers" at the end of each article, stating that whoever guessed the murderer would pay his royalties. Osamu Dazai also participated in the guessing of the murderer, but unfortunately the challenge failed. After the novel was officially published, it won the Novel Award at the 2nd Detective Writers Club Award (later renamed the "Mystery Writers Association Award") in the second month. It became a model work of Japan's postwar "honkaku" mystery novels and has been popular in Japan for more than half a century.
What Readers Think
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Official(3)Scraped 1d ago
It is also an extraordinary thing to find the most scarce but very attractive books at the right time. Ango has taken advantage of this and created many books, all of which are very popular.
Ango will choose what he wants to do. He has been in the literary world for fifteen years and has experienced wars. Many of the things Ango has experienced are a collection of his own materials.
The competitiveness during World War II was also very high, but there were a lot of vacancies, and the materials were even more scattered. Ango also used these things very skillfully.
Rating
Community(0)
Official(3)Scraped 1d ago
It is also an extraordinary thing to find the most scarce but very attractive books at the right time. Ango has taken advantage of this and created many books, all of which are very popular.
Ango will choose what he wants to do. He has been in the literary world for fifteen years and has experienced wars. Many of the things Ango has experienced are a collection of his own materials.
The competitiveness during World War II was also very high, but there were a lot of vacancies, and the materials were even more scattered. Ango also used these things very skillfully.
