Japanese Tales of Mystery and ImaginationEdogawa Rampo
Tuttle Publishing, May 2012
ISBN: 978-4805311936
Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination contains nine bloodcurdling tales by the man widely regarded as the father of Japanese mystery writing.
Edogawa Rampo derived his pen name from the classic American horror writer Edgar Allan Poe. And as such, Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination is a collection of short stories that emote the same sense of foreboding that his American counter-part did. Set primarily in the phantasmagoric culture of early 20th century Japan, each story captures the reader's imagination as it blurs the line between what is real and what is not.
There is a story of a quadruple amputee and his relationship with his wife. He's a war hero but is effectively a caterpillar now wrapped in his clothes. It's a tragic, terrible tale of two people bound and trapped together, in The Caterpillar.
Then we have a very ugly carpenter who makes a chair destined for a hotel. The chair is hollow and he hides himself in it for days at a time, enjoying the feel of the people, especially the women, who sit on him, in The Human Chair.
Another tale has a student planning the perfect murder, "a psychological murder." He actually envisions a whole career of such perfection and works very hard at perfecting his technique, in Psychological Test.
This collection of nine short stories, originally published in 1956, marked the first appearance in English translation of work by Japan's preeminent writer of thrillers and horror, Edogawa Rampo. Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination is written by an author who very purposefully styled himself as the Japanese answer to Edgar Allen Poe and he stays very true to that moniker. This book contains stories of the macabre and the shocking that ultimately could be taken right out of a collection of Poe stories. A wonderfully odd and different short story collection, and an interesting blend of crime stories and horror.
EDOGAWA RAMPO (Hirai Taro, 1894-1965) was the first modern writer of mysteries in Japan, and long-time president of the Japan Mystery Writers' Club. Rampo derived his pen name from the Japanese pronunciation of Edgar Allan Poe, his literary muse.
ISBN: 978-4805311936; ISBN10: 4805311932; Imprint: Tuttle Publishing; On Sale: 4/10/2012; Format: Paperback; Pages: 224; $15.95
