Two Japanese Novelists

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. First edition (presumed; no earlier dates stated). Octavo in white color illus DJ, xii, 168 pages, 24 cm. Extremely mild rubbing to corners, bright pages, tight binding, less than quarter inch closed tear to front DJ-top edge, faint soiling to DJ (mostly to rear DJ), else near fine(+) in near fine(-) DJ. in near fine dust-jacket. Hardcover.

DJ protected in archival mylar sleeve. Two writers, Natsume Soseki and Shimazaki Toson, invented the modern Japanese novel. Soseki is the eccentric novelist who appears on the 10,000 yen note. His contemporary, Shimazaki Toson, brought to Japanese fiction a lyricism previously seen only in poetry and nature writing. Japanese fiction -- 1868- -- History and criticism.