Ten Thousand Kalpas
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Summary
In wrestling with this beauty of evil, Junichiro Tanizaki portrays with vivid delicacy the psychological states and behaviors that jealousy produces—possessiveness, suspicion, dependence. Sonoko, Mitsuko, and Kotaro are all born lacking in love. On the journey toward a world without jealousy, all love at last enters the grave.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers who like Junichiro Tanizaki and follow modern Japanese literature
- Readers with patience for finely drawn psychological portraiture and complex character relationships
- Readers studying psychological themes such as jealousy and possessiveness
- Readers who can accept an ambiguous, morbid aesthetic and a slow narrative
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting clear moral judgment and a positive ending
- Readers who prefer fast-paced plots driven by strong action
- Readers liable to feel oppressed by morbid psychological description
Reading tips
- First sort out the relationships among Sonoko, Mitsuko, Kotaro, and Watanuki before entering the psychological description.
- Treat the character 卍 as a structural clue and watch how the characters' relations tighten.
- When reading passages of jealousy and suspicion, keep brief notes to help track the psychological shifts.
- After finishing, look back at the opening marriage setup to grasp the source of the characters' sense of lack.
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 四
- 五
- 六
- 七
- 八
- 九
- 十
- 十一
- 十二
- 十三
- 十四
- 十五
- 十六
- 十七
- 十八
- 十九
- 二十
- 二十一
- 二十二
- 二十三
- 二十四
- 二十五
- 二十六
- 二十七
- 二十八
- 二十九
- 三十
- 三十一
- 三十二
- 三十三
FAQ
What is the relation between the book's title "Manji" and "卍"?
Is this book suitable as an introduction to Junichiro Tanizaki?
Who is the jealousy mainly located in?
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About the author
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki was a modern Japanese novelist and a leading representative of aestheticist literature. Born in 1886 into a rice-merchant family in Tokyo, he studied in the Japanese literature department of Tokyo Imperial University before dropping out. In 1910 he made his name with the story "The Tattooer," which brought him attention in literary circles. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, he moved to the Kansai region, and his focus gradually shifted toward classical aesthetics. He left important works in both fiction and prose, including "The Makioka Sisters," "Naomi," "In Praise of Shadows," and "A Portrait of Shunkin." He also translated "The Tale of Genji" into modern Japanese, helping to spread the classical work. He died of kidney disease in 1965. His writing is delicate and refined, and he had a profound influence on modern Japanese aestheticist literature.
Yu Hua is an author about whom limited public information is available; details such as nationality, dates of birth and death, and an English name remain unconfirmed. Judging from the five works held in the collection, the author's writing spans several fields, including inspirational personal growth, foreign literature, social culture, and management. These range from personal-development titles such as The Power of Vision, Live Your Inner Power, and Life-Benefiting Survival Wisdom, to literary writing like Ten Thousand Calamities, and discussions of organizational management in Shared Employees: Organization, Leadership, and Change. This breadth suggests an interest in both self-improvement and broader humanistic and social themes, while the multi-volume editions indicate that the writing has reached readers in a sustained way. Given the lack of reliable biographical information, any assessment of style must rest on titles and categories, with further details awaiting additional sources.
