Botchan (Tuttle Classics)

Botchan, a timeless novel written by Japan's most beloved novelist, Soseki Natsume, is now available in a revised edition featuring a new foreword by Dennis Washburn, Professor of Asian & Middle Eastern Languages at Dartmouth College. Prof. Washburn's foreword places the importance of both the author & the book into perspective for the modern reader.

Botchan's story is a familiar one: the youngest son in a middle-class Tokyo family, he is consistently in the shadow of his elder brother. With a practically nonexistent relationship with his family, Botchan finds himself cast adrift after both his parents die. Now on his own, Botchan drifts through college only to find himself thrust into a teaching job in the unfamiliar realm of a country school, far from Tokyo & the life he has known. Botchan's difficulty adjusting to his new life is eloquently described, from his nosy landlord to his students, who delight in tormenting the newcomer from the big city.

Through it all, Botchan's life is threaded with his vacillating concern for Kiyo, the family servant he left behind who was the only person to give him love & understanding in his life. Regardless of where he goes or what he does, he is always trying to apply the lessons she taught him to his life. 

Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916), the widely read author of a variety of novels, essays, & haiku & kanshi poetry toward the end of the Meiji period (1868–1912), is the dominant figure in modern Japanese literature. In 1900 he was sent to London by the Japanese Ministry of Education to study English literature for 2 years, & upon his return was appointed lecturer in English at Tokyo Imperial University. He published his first work of fiction in 1905,...