内容简介
As an interpreter of Japan to the West, Lafcadio Hearn waswithout parallel in his time. His numerous books about that countrywere read with a fascination that was a tribute to his keen powersof observation and the vividness of his de*ions. Today, eventhough Japan has changed greatly from what it was when her wroteabout it, his writing is still valid, for it captures the essenceof the country-an essence that has actually changed a good dealless than outward appearances might suggest. In a word, theJapanese character and the Japanese tradition are stillfundamentally the same as Hearn found them to be, and for thisreason his books are still extremely revealing to readers in theWest. "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan" combines the two volumes of awork that first appeared in 1894. Its title is apt, for the booktakes the reader into a world that few Westerners saw in the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here are the customs, thesuperstitions, the charming scenery, the revelations of Japanesecharacter, and all the other elements that Hearn found sobewitching. Here, for example, are essays on such subjects as theJapanese garden, the household shrine, the festivals, and thebewildering Japanese smile-all aspects of Japanese life that haveendured in spite of the changes that have taken place during themodernization of Japan. In his preface to the book, Hearn writes:'This is the life of which a foreign observer can never weary, iffortunate and sympathetic enough to enter into it...Each day, whilethe years pass, there will be revealed to him, some strange andunexpected beauty in it'. It is fortunate indeed that he was ableto bring to his readers so much of this 'strange and unsuspectedbeauty'.