A collection of twenty-eight brilliant and strange stories, inspired by Japanese folk tales and written by renowned Western expatriate Lafcadio Hearn
Lafcadio Hearn (1850β1904) was one of the nineteenth centuryβs 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 fromHarperβs. 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 Hearnbrings together twenty-eight of Hearnβs strangest and most entertaining stories in one elegant volume.
Hearnβs tales span a variety of genres. Many are fantastical ghost stories, such as βThe Corpse-Rider,β in which a man foils the attempts of his former wifeβs ghost to haunt him. Some are love stories in which the beloved is not what she appears to be: in βThe Story of Aoyagi,β 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, Hearnβs reverence for Japan shines through, and his stories provide insights into the countryβs artistic and cultural heritage.
With an introduction by Andrei Codrescu discussing Hearnβs life and work, as well as a foreword by Jack Zipes,Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearnprovides a unique window into one writerβs multicultural literary journey.