The Life of an Amorous Woman

The Life of an Amorous Woman

Author: 井原西鶴

Publisher: New Directions Publishing

Published: 1963

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9780811201872

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Ihara Saikaku "wrote of the lowest class in the Tokugawa world -- the townsmen who were rising in wealth and power but not in official status."--Back cover.


Life of an Amorous Man

Life of an Amorous Man

Author: Ihara Saikaku

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 2011-09-13

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1462902014

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First published in 1682, The Life of an Amorous Man depicts the pursuits and follies of the glorious age of old Japan, when the new bourgeoisie, unfettered by the societal constraints of the traditional aristocracy, indulged in the free and easy life of Japan’s celebrated pleasure houses. The hero of this fascinating novel is a composite of the many daijin (men of wealth) who spent their time in these flourishing establishments. The novel follows the hero, Yonosuke, or “Man of the World,” from precocious childhood to the close of his amatory career. Along the way, Saikaku exploits the full gamut of his sexual indulgence, always the frankness, often with humor, and occasionally with pathos — chronicling the erotic escapades of his hero and providing vivid character sketches of the women (and sometimes men) with whom Yonosuke dallied.


Amorous Woman

Amorous Woman

Author: Donna Storey

Publisher: Stone Bridge Press

Published: 2012-08-13

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1611729009

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An American woman's sexual awakening in Japan, testing the limits of love and sensual pleasure


Five Women Who Loved Love

Five Women Who Loved Love

Author: Ihara Saikaku

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 1989-12-15

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1462903002

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"Five charming novellas … which have astonishing freshness, color, and warmth."-- The New Yorker First published in 1686, this collection of five novellas by Ihara Saikaku was an immediate bestseller in the bawdy world of Genroku Japan. The book's popularity has only increased with age, making it a literary classic like Boccaccio's Decameron, or the works of Rabelais. Each of the five stories follows a determined woman on her quest for amorous adventure: The Story of Seijuro in Himeji -- Onatsu, already wise in the ways of love the tender age of sixteen. The Barrelmaker Brimful of Love -- Osen, a faithful wife until unjustly accused of adultery. What the Seasons Brought the Almanac Maker-- Osan, a Kyoto beauty who falls asleep in the wrong bed. The Greengrocer's Daughter with a Bundle of Love -- Oshichi, willing to burn down a city to meet her samurai lover. Gengobei, the Mountain of Love -- Oman, who has to compete with handsome boys to win her lover's affections. But the book is more than a collection of skillfully told erotic tales, for "Saikaku …could not delve into the inmost secrets of human life only to expose them to ridicule or snickering prurience. Obviously fascinated by the variety and complexity of human love, but always retaining a sense of its intrinsic dignity … he is both a discriminating and compassionate judge of his fellow man." Saikaku's style, as allusive as it is witty, is a challenge that few translators have dared to face, and certainly never before with the success here. Accentuated by gorgeous 17th-century illustrations. Theodore de Bary's translation manages to recapture the heady flavor of the original in this sumptuous collection of romantic tales.


This Scheming World

This Scheming World

Author: Ihara Saikaku

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 2011-12-20

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 146290260X

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This classic work of Japanese literature is considered the masterpiece of Japanese novelist Seken Munasanya. This Scheming World (Seken Munasanyo) was published in 1692, one year before the author’s death. It represents the culmination of Saikaku’s perceptive genius, and in structure, is one of the most consolidated of all his works. Most of the stories are told as incidents or episodes relating to New Year’s Eve, when in those days it was the custom to balance all debits and credits for the year. Saikaku portrays his characters with so lifelike a touch that, even though three centuries have passed since his time, it seems as if they were our contemporaries. Decidedly inclined towards the debtors, Saikaku has them slipping off to the homes of their favorite mistresses, leaving town on “sudden” business trips, or becoming actors for the day in order to deceive the ever–persistent year–end collectors. Some of his characters are successful, while some are beset by even more troubles in trying to avoid the collectors. The episodes are always frank, often with humor, and occasionally pathetic. But more than anything else, the seventeenth century day–to–day way of living by the commoners comes vividly to life.


In Praise of Older Women

In Praise of Older Women

Author: Stephen Vizinczey

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1990-10-15

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780226858869

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"A cool, comic survey of the sexual education of a young Hungarian, from his first encounter, as a twelve-year-old refugee with the American forces, to his unsatisfactory liaison with a reporter's wife in Canada at the belated end of his youth, when he was twenty-three . . . elegantly erotic, with masses of that indefinable quality, style . . . this has the real stuff of immortality."—B. A. Young, Punch "A pleasure. Vizinczey writes of women beautifully, with sympathy, tact and delight, and he writes about sex with more lucidity and grace than most writers ever acquire."—Larry McMurtry, Houston Post "Like James Joyce, who was as far from being a writer of erotica as Dostoevsky, Vizinczey has a refreshing message to deliver: Life is not about sex, sex is about life."—John Podhoretz, Washington Times "The gracefully written story of a young man growing up among older women . . . although some passages may well arouse the reader, this novel brims with what the courts have termed "redeeming literary merit."—Clarence Petersen, Chicago Tribune "A funny novel about sex, or rather (which is rarer) a novel which is funny as well as touching about sex . . . elegant, exact and melodious—has style, presence and individuality."—Isabel Quigly, Sunday Telegraph "The delicious adventures of a young Casanova who appreciates maturity while acquiring it himself. In turn naive, sophisticated, arrogant, disarming, the narrator woos his women and his tale wins the reader."—Polly Devlin, Vogue


A Monstrous Regiment of Women

A Monstrous Regiment of Women

Author: Laurie R. King

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Published: 1995-07-15

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1429936525

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Winner of the Nero Wolfe Award It is 1921 and Mary Russell--Sherlock Holmes's brilliant apprentice, now an Oxford graduate with a degree in theology--is on the verge of acquiring a sizable inheritance. Independent at last, with a passion for divinity and detective work, her most baffling mystery may now involve Holmes and the burgeoning of a deeper affection between herself and the retired detective. Russell's attentions turn to the New Temple of God and its leader, Margery Childe, a charismatic suffragette and a mystic, whose draw on the young theology scholar is irresistible. But when four bluestockings from the Temple turn up dead shortly after changing their wills, could sins of a capital nature be afoot? Holmes and Russell investigate, as their partnership takes a surprising turn in A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King.


Five Women Who Loved Love

Five Women Who Loved Love

Author: 井原西鶴

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 1956

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780804801843

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First published in 1686, Five Women Who Loved Love was an immediate bestseller in the bawdy, life-loving world that was Genroku Japan.