The Siren's Lament: Essential Stories
The sage Confucius visits a cultured duke, whose pursuit of virtue is threatened by the desires of his dazzling, malicious consort. A naive servant elopes with his master's daughter, only to be plunged headlong into a world of murder and corruption. Exhausted by a lifestyle of never-ending debauchery, a young prince finds himself obsessed with a sorrowful, beguiling mermaid. These three stories, in a gorgeous new translation by Bryan Karetnyk, distil the essence of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's shorter fiction: the commingling of Japanese and Chinese mythologies, the dark side of desire and the paper-thin line between the sublime and the depraved.
Author: Jun'ichiro Tanizaki
Format: Paperback, 192 pages, 129mm x 198mm
Published: 2025, Pushkin Press, United Kingdom
Genre: Short Stories & Fiction Anthologies
Description
The sage Confucius visits a cultured duke, whose pursuit of virtue is threatened by the desires of his dazzling, malicious consort. A naive servant elopes with his master's daughter, only to be plunged headlong into a world of murder and corruption. Exhausted by a lifestyle of never-ending debauchery, a young prince finds himself obsessed with a sorrowful, beguiling mermaid. These three stories, in a gorgeous new translation by Bryan Karetnyk, distil the essence of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's shorter fiction: the commingling of Japanese and Chinese mythologies, the dark side of desire and the paper-thin line between the sublime and the depraved.
The Siren's Lament: Essential Stories