Fine snow World Literature Classics Popular Edition

Author: Japan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-08-01
Features: This book tells the story of the four sisters of the Shigekata family, a prominent West Japan aristocratic clan, on the eve of the outbreak of the Pacific War. The two sisters who are about to marry are the protagonists of the novel. The beautiful and gentle third sister, Yuko, though having her own opinions, is trapped by the strong social pressure of class-based marriage and becomes a puppet, repeatedly taken for matchmaking and rejected due to class prejudices until she reluctantly marries as a stepmother at the age of over thirty. The bold and adventurous fourth sister, Mayuko, tries to break free from the constraints of family rituals, but she is ruthlessly expelled from the family after living with a lower-class man. The novel reveals the inner workings of the upper class in Japan and touches upon the customs and culture of West Japan. It is hailed as a "masterpiece of upper-class social fiction," "a rare narrative literature," and a "vivid painting scroll of romance." It is the life's work of the aestheticist author Jun'ichiro Tanizaki.