Dawn to the West: A History of Japanese Literature - 2nd Edition by Donald Keene (Paperback)

About the Book

This is the third book in a multivolume history of modern Japanese literature by the world's authoritative translator and scholar of Japanese culture and literature. The Columbia paperback edition, with Donald Keene's new preface, includes an introduction, an appendix, glossary, index, and a selected list of translations into English.

Book Synopsis

This is the first of a multivolume history of modern Japanese literature. Volume one is devoted to the study of fiction, and contains complete studies of all the important Japanese writers since the Meiji restoration in 1868, both those widely read in the West and other lesser known writers.

Review Quotes

The publication of Dawn to the West... will do even more to establish modern Japanese literature as one of the major literatures of the world.... Here, for the first time, in two monumental volumes, are Mr. Keene's readable, yet thoroughly scholarly, essays on virtually all aspects of modern Japan's major creative writing. The first volume of Dawn to the West, which is devoted to fiction, contains complete studies of all the important Japanese writers since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, both those widely read in the West and others less well known.-- "New York Times Book Review"

About the Author

Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University.
Hailed by Anatole Broyard in the New York Times Book Review as "the century's leading expert on Japanese literature, as well as its most indefatigable translator," Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is the author of the multivolume history of Japanese literature Dawn to the West and translator of numerous books, including Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu, Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers): A Puppet Play, and Three Plays by Kobo Abe, all published by Columbia.