edogawa rampo tales of mystery and imagination

Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination, or, as it should have been called, How to do the bloody deed and get away with it without facing criminal charges or the accusing finger of society (the bird, probably). Read it if you read nothing else of Rampo's. It is one of the most memorable pieces of short fiction I have ever read, containing an extraordinary first-person monologue which is pathetic, disgusting and horrifying at the same time. Indeed, I think Rampo's stories may be equal to Borges-which is a high compliment indeed-but I cannot be sure, for this translation often lacks the verbal elegance that would best communicate the formal beauty of these tales and give them the extra polish a first class work requires.Īll the nine tales here are very good, and 'The Caterpillar,' 'The Hell of Mirrors,' The Red Chamber' and 'The Traveler with the Pasted Rag Picture' are excellent, but I must single out 'The Human Chair' for special mention. Borges is more philosophical, Rampo more psychological Borges teems with puzzle and paradox, Rampo with obsession and ratiocination, and yet each celebrates man's inventiveness while still being woefully aware of his limitations. In this Rampo resembles Borges, and yet the two writers are very different. His stories, structured as popular 'entertainments,' are designed to convey all the pleasures of genre, and yet they possess an elegance and intellectual complexity greater than mere popular works. Lucid and packed with suspense, Edogawa Rampo's stories found in Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination have enthralled Japanese readers for over half a century.Įdogowa Rampo-just say his pen name quickly three times to discover how much he loved Edgar Allen Poe-is considered the first and foremost writer of Japanese mystery fiction. These nine bloodcurdling, chilling tales present a genre of literature largely unknown to readers outside Japan, including the strange story of a quadruple amputee and his perverse wife the record of a man who creates a mysterious chamber of mirrors and discovers hidden pleasures within the morbid confession of a maniac who envisions a career of foolproof 'psychological' murders and the bizarre tale of a chair-maker who buries himself inside an armchair and enjoys the sordid 'loves' of the women who sit on his handiwork.

Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination, the first volume of its kind translated into English, is written with the quick tempo of the West but rich with the fantasy of the East.

This collection of mystery and horror stories is regarded as Japan's answer to Edgar Allan Poe.

Edogawa rampo tales of mystery and imagination