Ten Nights' Dreams and Our Cat's Grave

Ten Nights' Dreams (??? Yume J?ya) is a classic written work from the Japanese master Natsume Soseki. Originally published in 1908 it announced the emergence in Japanese literature of a modernist and impressionistic mode. Short vignettes with fantastic tragic or magical events convey an exquisite sensibility compounded with stark realism. Love honor duty artistry desire despair and regret all shape events in the dream-world. The stories themselves suggest echoes of meanings beyond the failures of rational sense-making. Ten dreams-each unique and arresting-form a panorama of life and feeling at once universal and intensely present. Our Cat's Grave is a brief but heartfelt monody for a feline companion. Encompassing both the affection and the neglect it becomes a meditation on empathy and helplessness and on the transience of life and the persistence of memory.