Kappa / Ryunosuke Akutagawa ; translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Bownas ; with an introduction by G.H. Healey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Akutagawa, Ryūnosuke, 1892-1927

Contributor:

Bownas, Geoffrey.

Series:

Peter Owen modern classics

Standardized Title:

Kappa. English

Language:

English

Japanese

Subjects (All):

Mentally ill--Fiction.

Mentally ill.

Genre:

Fiction.

Novels.

Physical Description:

141 pages ; 19 cm.

Edition:

Paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

London ; Chester Springs, PA : Peter Owen ; Chester Springs, PA : Distributed in the USA by Dufour Editions, 2004.

Language Note:

Translated from the Japanese.

Summary:

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is known primarily as the author whose books formed the basis of Kurosawa's Rashomon. Originally published in 1927. Kappa was published just before he committed suicide, at the age of 35. Patient No. 23 tells his story to anyone in the asylum who will listen. On his way home through a valley, he falls into a deep abyss while chasing a nimble creature with a face like a tiger and a sharp beak. The creature was a Kappa, and when he awoke he was in Kappaland. One man's initiation into the rites of this parallel world becomes the vehicle for a savage and funny critique of contemporary Japanese life and customs. A Peter Owen Modern Classic.

Notes:

First published in Great Britain in 1970.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0720612004

OCLC:

52146179