David Dilworth presents the reader with a great compilation of short stories of, arguably, Japan's best author. Each story is masterly crafted with meticulous attention paid to historical detail, and each story is well prefaced, explaining Ogai's philosophic and aesthetic intentions. Either Dilworth or a collegue has made first rate translations in this edition. I would reccomend this book to both the scholar of Japanese literature and those who have only a nodding acquaintance with Ogai.

The subtitle to this book caught my interest. It's a collection of stories, letters, poems, and songs by people learning, growing, questing. It is like being friends with these people and reading their intimate letters to you about what's going on in their lives, their struggles, their sexuality, how they deal with relationships, marriage, having a baby, death, career. The book is self-published and only 5,000 copies were printed in July 1974 and it's 174 pages. I imagine if you were coming into adulthood in the sixties that this book would really take you back. I enjoyed it.