The Key

Name: The Key
ISBN: 9787532789399

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki / 张士杰Shanghai Translation Publishing House · ChinaOct 2022

4.2

Word count: 82K words
Chapters: 63
ISBN: 9787532789399

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Summary

The Key is a representative work by the Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki, unfolding through the diaries of a middle-aged husband and wife in alternating entries. It amounts to a record of marital life under a double perspective: privacy, speculation, enticement, and covert struggle between the spouses, compounded by the participation of their daughter and her prospective husband into a four-way relationship, ultimately leading to the conspiratorial ending of the husband's death by provocation. This diary-form novel, a psychological contest of wills staged for desire by Tanizaki in the 1950s, has become a classic in portraying human desire, distinguished in subject matter, structure, and dramatic tension.

Editor's review

The Key is a representative work by Junichiro Tanizaki written in the 1950s. Told through the dual perspectives of the diaries kept by a middle-aged husband and wife, it is a psychological contest waged for desire. The work's core strength lies in its structure: the couple never confess to each other, yet both use their diaries to gauge and manipulate the other, with privacy and covert struggle escalating layer by layer on the page; the daughter and prospective son-in-law join to form a four-way relationship, ultimately driving toward a conspiratorial ending in which the husband dies from provocation. The diary form gives each of the two narrators a partial grasp of the truth, and readers piece together the whole through cross-reading, which is where the dramatic tension arises. The novel is distinctive in subject matter, structure, and psychological portrayal, and is an important text for understanding Tanizaki's late work and modern Japanese writing on desire. It suits readers interested in narrative technique, psychological fiction, and family ethics. When reading, note that both diarists are unreliable; the truth lies in the gaps between the two narratives, and neither side should be taken at face value.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in narrative structure and dual-perspective writing
Readers who enjoy fiction of psychological gamesmanship and family ethics
Readers studying modern Japanese literature and Tanizaki's work
Mature readers comfortable with writing on desire and dark human nature

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting conventional linear narrative and straightforward plotting
Readers sensitive to content involving erotic desire and ethical taboos
Readers hoping for a clear moral conclusion from the book

Reading tips

Mark the husband's and wife's diary sections separately and compare how the same event differs between the two narratives.
While reading, note the diary's function as a tool of voyeurism and consider how the characters use writing to manipulate each other.
After the ending, go back through earlier passages to look for foreshadowing of the covert struggle and clues to the truth in the gaps between narratives.
Read alongside Diary of a Mad Old Man to compare how Tanizaki varies perspective in his diary-form novels.

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

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.

版权信息
一月一日
一月四日
一月七日
一月八日
一月十三日
一月十七日
一月二十日
一月二十八日
一月二十九日
一月二十九日
一月三十日
一月三十日
二月九日
二月十四日
二月十六日
二月十八日
二月十九日
二月二十四日
二月二十七日
二月二十七日
二月二十八日
三月三日
三月七日
三月十日
三月十四日
三月十八日
三月十九日
三月十九日
三月二十四日
三月二十六日
三月二十八日
三月三十日
三月三十一日
三月三十一日
四月一日
四月二日
四月三日
四月四日
四月五日
四月五日
四月六日
四月八日
四月十日
四月十三日
四月十五日
四月十六日
四月十七日
四月十八日
四月十九日
四月二十日
四月二十一日
四月二十二日
四月二十三日
四月二十四日
四月二十五日
四月二十八日
四月二十九日
四月三十日
五月一日
六月九日
六月十日
六月十一日

FAQ

How does the structure of the couple's separate diaries drive the plot?

The two never communicate directly; instead they record and gauge each other through their diaries, even deliberately letting the other see them. The diary becomes a tool of manipulation and covert struggle, with privacy exchanged and exploited on the page, and the plot advances step by step through this mutual probing until it reaches its conspiratorial ending.

Are the narrators in the book reliable?

Both diarists are unreliable. Each records only what suits them or what they are willing to admit, with conjecture and self-justification. Readers must piece together the truth from the gaps between the two narratives and cannot trust either side's one-sided account—which is also where the pleasure of reading the book lies.

What is distinctive about this novel within Tanizaki's work?

It is a representative diary-form novel from Tanizaki's 1950s output, depicting a couple's desire and covert struggle through dual perspectives, and it is distinctive in subject matter, structure, and dramatic tension. Together with Diary of a Mad Old Man, it reflects Tanizaki's sustained late-career exploration of diary narrative and human desire.

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About the author

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki Author · Japanese · 1886–1965

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.

张士杰 Author

Zhang Shijie: publicly available information is limited, and details of his life, such as nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background, have not been clearly recorded. At present, it is known only that three of his works are included on this site, commonly classified under foreign literature and documentary literature. Representative works include Key, The Erased Family, and The Abyss of the Hospital, the last of which belongs to the Translation Documentary series. Judging from the categories of these works, Zhang Shijie's writing and translation activities center on foreign literature and documentary literature, with particular attention to social reality and issues such as family and healthcare. The subjects of The Erased Family and The Abyss of the Hospital suggest a sustained concern with the relationship between individual lives and institutional environments, while Key reflects an interest in literary narrative. The Translation Documentary series generally introduces overseas nonfiction, so if The Abyss of the Hospital belongs to it, Zhang Shijie may have worked as a translator or editor. In the absence of verifiable biographical material, no further inferences are made here; this note merely outlines his thematic orientation and writing profile based on the works recorded on this site.