Abyssal·Lost Sheep

Author: Yu Dafu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: The Drowning was published by Shanghai Taodong Publishing House in October 1921. It is a collection of novels by Yu Dafu. In The Drowning, the author completely ignores social moral concepts and boldly writes about the inner world of young men tormented by desire. The short story The Drowning is one of the most notable works in this collection. It tells the story of a Chinese student studying in Japan who falls in love with a Japanese girl but, due to the inferiority complex caused by the weak national identity, cannot confess his feelings and ultimately commits suicide. The collection also boldly depicts personal secrets such as voyeurism and masturbation. In a society that places great importance on morality, such acts are completely unacceptable. As a result, the collection was immediately attacked by the Shanghai literary circles after its publication, while also demonstrating the significance of humanism. The Lost Sheep is a novella published by Shanghai Beishu Book Company in January 1928. The novel is set in three cities along the Yangtze River in the 1920s—"City A," Nanjing, and Shanghai—and portrays the lives of disillusioned and struggling young intellectuals of the time. The "I" in the story is a university graduate named Wang, who meets and falls in love with the famous actress Xie Yueying while in City A. They are deeply in love with each other, but their lives begin to face crises. The novel boldly exposes the self, with a feverish and even pathological tone, full of romantic and melancholic sentiments, with strong subjective lyrical elements.