Osamu Dazai (1909–1948)
Author of No Longer Human
About the Author
Born into a near-aristocratic family whose declining world he depicts in The Setting Sun (1947), Dazai had the means to become an accomplished dilettante and rake. Around 1933 he began to think seriously about writing, but his life was complicated by drug addiction, a string of affairs, and two show more attempts at suicide. The end of the war brought a change in Dazai, and he produced his finest works, even though his own life was ending because of alcoholism and tuberculosis. The darkness of his works reveals his tortured existence, which he ended by suicide. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Tamura Shigeru（田村茂）
Works by Osamu Dazai
Zapadající slunce 2 copies
Дас Гемайнэ 1 copy
Lantern [short story] 1 copy
December 8th 1 copy
Waiting 1 copy
Одежда из рыбьей чешуи 1 copy
Обезьяний остров 1 copy
Thất lạc cõi người 1 copy
DIELLI QE PERENDON 1 copy
晩年 1 copy
桜桃 人間失格 1 copy
Припадаю к вашим стопам 1 copy
Retrogression 1 copy
El sol que declina 1 copy
Ya no humano 1 copy
Ludino cveće 1 copy
海 [Umi] 1 copy
Nữ sinh 1 copy
Tà Dương 1 copy
Mulheres 1 copy
Owoce wiśni 1 copy
Early Light [short story] 1 copy
The Story of a Pet Dog 1 copy
Associated Works
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection (1994) — Contributor — 258 copies, 2 reviews
釣魚の迷宮―怪異幻魚譚~ファンに贈る傑作集 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Dazai, Osamu
- Legal name
- 太宰 治
Tsushima Shuji - Other names
- Osamu, Dazai
- Birthdate
- 1909-06-19
- Date of death
- 1948-06-13
- Burial location
- Zenrin-Ji Temple, Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo, Japan
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Japan
- Birthplace
- Kanagi, Aomori prefecture, Japan
- Place of death
- Tokyo, Japan
- Places of residence
- Tokyo, Japan
Kanagi, Aomori prefecture, Japan - Education
- Aomori Prefectural Aomori High School
Hirosaki University
University of Tokyo (French Literature | dropped out) - Occupations
- short-story writer
novelist - Relationships
- Tsushima, Yūko (daughter)
Members
Reviews
This story takes place in Japan shortly after its surrender in WWII and was published in 1947. It is narrated by a young woman named Kazuku, 30 years old and divorced. She lives with her mother in a small country cottage after being forced to sell their large home in Tokyo. They are part of the aristocratic class that has collapsed with the fall of the Emperor. An uncle has liquidated their former wealth to pay off debts and now they are in the process of selling off jewelry, furniture and clothes to survive. Before Kazuku can get a job her mother becomes ill and needs constant care. Her brother, Naoji, returns after being presumed dead and becomes a drain on their finances. He has drug and alcohol problems and cannot adjust to the changes in Society. As her mother gets sicker and her brother suicidal, Kazuku begins to fantasize about a dissolute married writer whom she feels she loves and wants to have a child by, this will be her salvation. Reviewers say this was heralded as a true chronicle of the Japanese spirit at the time; a society in upheaval with growing Western influences. It was depressing. The background on the author portrayed a man in a similar mind set; who had tried suicide 5 times in his life and committed it finally in 1948 at the age of 39. Very sad.… (more)
My first Dazai, The Setting Sun, didn't leave much of an afterimage on my retina, but these three short stories, bound in a strangely appealing format intended to give off kids' storybook vibes, might have just made me see the light. The title story posits its ruined, alcoholic narrator, drifting in the firebombed ruins of Tokyo at the tail-end of the war, trying ineffectually to care for, or at least not further harm, his wife and children, as a microcosm of ruined, compulsively self-destructive Japan, seemingly unable to arrest its own moral and material downward spiral. The prose, in Ralph McCarthy's translation, is economical and the images are arresting. Then there's One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, a lighter piece that seems to poke fun at the totemic status of the mountain in Japanese art while expressing frustration at its (and its author's) own (perceived) inability to ascend to the same heights as Hokusai and Buncho. This piece contains a friendly dog called Hachi. And Villon's Wife, translated by the great Donald Keene with a touch more formality, is a quietly devastating look at the ravages of alcoholism from the perspective of the addict's/author's wife.… (more)
It took awhile for me to get into this one. This guy is basically a spoiled, self-indulgent kid who needs to see a therapist. The protagonist just couldn't find the silver lining in almost anything. Seemed to delight in his own degradation. Nothing in modern life could give him pleasure, there was nothing to live for. The author ended up committing suicide not long after this novel's publication so no doubt, this stuff is coming from a sincere place. But it's not terribly interesting to read.
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Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 96
- Also by
- 21
- Members
- 5,046
- Popularity
- #4,959
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 84
- ISBNs
- 242
- Languages
- 22
- Favorited
- 23
This gets tied in with a story Suwa's father once told her, about two brothers, one of whom was transformed into a serpent, as well as Suwa's eventual fate.
I have no idea what this story means, although it seems possible, to me, that Suwa supposedly becoming a fish was actually a very pretty and fantastical way of saying that she drowned just like the student who fell and drowned. Maybe I'm being too bleak, but hey, it's Dazai.
The full-color illustrations accompanying the text are lovely. They don't exactly match the text, although I suppose they fit the overall feeling.
I plan to try more works in the "Maiden's Bookshelf" series, mostly because I'd like to see more of the artwork. I just wish the books themselves were a bit larger, to properly show off the artwork.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (more)