Diversity in Classic Literature Notable works of classic Asian literature?
Diversity in Classic Literature
Notable works of classic Asian literature?
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Diversity in Classic Literature
Notable works of classic Asian literature?
Stories from ancient India:
The ass in the lion’s skin-Jakata
The dove and the crow-Panchatantra
The story of devadatta-Somadeva
The jackal-Hitopadesa
The Tale of Genji (I believe that is the title)
Yes, I am planning to read later this year
It’s so good!!!! 🙂
Excellent!! Good to know 🙂
I Ching, or The Book of Changes
Oh! So many brilliante Japanese authors! Search Japanese classics.
Good idea!
Chinese author Lu Xun the collected stories, I really like him!
Japanese work: The Tale of Genzi
Strange Tales from A Chinese Studio
Author?
Peter Kalnin,
Pu Singling, penguin edition, translated by John Mitford. It’s a selection (complete is available on Gutenberg) of 104 tales, with an intro and notes and where most of the tales include a lovely wood block print related to the tale.
The novels and short stories of Yasunari Kawabata, Natsume Soseki, and Kenji Miyazawa (Japan).
Haruki Murakami, Yu Hua
The Book of Five Rings.
I love Saraswati Park,
Life of Pi,
Coram Boy,
Slumdog Millionaire,
and
Fasting, Feasting.
Anything by Pearl Buck love The Good Earth
Lucie ~ The Good Earth is the first of a three part series by Buck called House of Earth (#2 is Sons, and #3 is A House Divided wh I have not yet read)
@Peter I know I too have those books but have to read them The Good Earth is a book that has stayed with me thanks Peter for reminding me
@Lucie ~ I have an audiobook that is on my to-read list: Pearl of China. It may be of interest https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6951073-pearl-of-china?from_search=true
Spring Snow
The Arabian Nights
Pachinko – Korea. The Three-Body Problem – Chinese SF. The White Tiger and Midnight’s Children – India.
The Analects
Confucius
Forbidden Colors by Yukio Mishima
Chinese: The Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun (a modern classic). The Way of Chuang Tzu, interpreted by Thomas Merton. The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, various interpretations. India, Siddharta by Herman Hesse.
I’m currently reading an early novel by Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy (1970) is considered his “masterpiece”: Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel. Modern classic.
“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress”, by Dai Sijie – Excellent!
The tricky thing is…I have read it and liked it at that time. But now, I can hardly recall what that was about.
Sometimes this happens, right?–good argument for reading a book again!
RamaYana
(Sanskrit)
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. Historically, it is considered the first novel ever written.
Year it was written?
@Kathy I’m pretty sure it was the 11th century. Don’t know the exact year.
Yes, 11th century
Thank you.
1020 AD
the good earth, pearl buck
I read it when I was in high school. It was enjoyable, but also a little peculiar.
Hong Gil-dong (from Korea)
@Timothy Very true, but your answer is kind of hilarious.
Oh also, a modern Japanese classic (early, mid? 20th century): Rashomon and other stories by (the author’s name hard to spell for me and I don’t have the book in front of me). Now, I have to say that it is a tiny book and from the few stories there I only liked Rashomon mostly and just a couple others. That’s why I gave the book a 2 star rating on my goodreads; however, they’re worth reading. They’re all disturbing and as dark as they can get, but some are more disturbing than others. After reading these stories it will almost make sense that the author killed himself at a young age. I mean really, once you get in the depth of darkness of Rashomon and other stories, you’ll want some help to navigate out of it. ?
A brilliant fable… BTW, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was Japanese. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/672376.Rashomon_and_Other_Stories
@Peter, yes! I just realized I wrote Chinese. I meant to write Japanese. Thanks for catching that. I’ll correct. Also, I just remember I have read and love it a collection of Japanese death poems also on my goodreads, but I don’t know how to post links here as you did.
@Louiza ~ just highlight the URL (the web address), copy (command C), and paste that onto your comment (command V)
@Peter, thank you! I’ll try that next time ?
@Peter, I just realized I’m on my phone app and that’s where I can’t copy the URL. I know on my laptop, but on my android app won’t let me. I’ll try to see if there is a share somewhere.
@Louiza ~ I know that on my iPhone there is a trick to copying the URL. I suggest you ask a teenager … ha ha
I’ m.still thinking about Homer( Epic) in.800-700 bce.
I can’t get over the time period of 800 BCE to 2019 AD.
@Kathy, you mean you want an Asian classic of the period of Homer type of epic?
Louiza Greek-American
No. I am just thinking ( out loud) about that time period in civilization and the literary acomplishments that have taken place from 800 BC to 2019 AD
I am protecting myself from the FATES.
@Kathy and @Peter, you guys are funny! ?
Memoirs of a Geisha and The Quiet American by Graham Greene.
@Joan The Quiet American is superb! But Graham Greene is English.. And Arthur Golden is American.
@Yuki I think Graham Greene wrote about his experiences as a war corespondent for the Times.
Pearl S. Buck The Hidden Flower. Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan. Sorry, not familiar with many other Asian authors right off the top of my head.
Joy Luck Club is a modern Chinese-American classic that bridges cultures and languages, and is especially good in depicting differing views from multiple female characters from different generations and cultural-linguistic backgrounds
Chinese classic literature: The Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en. The Outlaws of the Marsh by Shi Nai’an and Luo Guanzhong. I read the beautiful French translations in the Pleiade collection (publisher Gallimard). There is Jing Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase or The Golden Lotus) as well but I haven’t read it.
Japanese classic literature, of course The Tale of Genji. There are 4 major translations. I would like to read the Tyler one, the 1976 translation is the one I have read.
I love Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country.
More contemporary, I would suggest Yasushi Inoue’s novels. And because I’m a tea lover, I would go for his Death of a Tea Master.
In 2008 Kenichi Yamamoto’s beautiful novel was about the same story (the enigma of Rikyu, the tea master’s death). I read it in French as well. It is a real pity it isn’t translated to English yet.
Another today’s japanese writer I enjoy reading is Ito Ogawa.
Noli Me tangere and El filibusterismo from the Philippines
@Cebu,
I read a translation, brilliant, hooked all the way through.
The writer of that book is the national hero of the Philippines @Anisha
@Cebu,
It was a surprise to discover, and the truth he learnt about his father’s death and how it made him look at things in a new way. Yeah, amazing story, and I would read again.
Yeah that book has satirical meaning because it is written during spanish colonialism in the Philippines.
Pearl S Buck, an American who live in China for 34 years, a missionary, wrote a book about China called The Good Earth (Pulitizer Prize winner). In 1938, she won the Nobel Prize in literature. She wrote many novels in her lifetime, also her interest spread to India and Korea. I didn’t want The Good Earth to end. It has stuck with me many years.
@Karen ~ she could speak Chinese before she could speak English. She was truly bicultural
The Joy Luck Club and Saving Fish from Drowning (Amy Tan), Silence (Shusaku Endo, but I’m not quite sure if this is already considered a classic), and from my homeland–the Philippines–Nick Joaquin stories because I see our National Hero’s greatest novels are already given. <3
@Jamie Endo’s Silence (1966) is excellent, and the first notable Japanese novel I’ve come across that is translated beautifully. It’s on my 1,001 list.
There are hundreds of notable works in Bangla literature and unfortunately they don’t have any English translation. ?
The ramayan-a great Indian classic
Botchan, I Am A Cat, and Kikoro by Natsume Soseki (favourite authour), The Tales of Monkey, Soul Mountain By Xingjian, The Tale Of Kieu, Kim Thuy, Nakazawa.
Oh my gosh, Soseki’s I Am a Cat was such a funny book. <3
@Joshua Right, it was. I love Soseki’s sense of humour. It is always near in all his works. Glad you like him too.
Classic Asian to me screams Sun Tzu The Art Of War. One of those books you get slated for not being able to quote in certain company – that was reason enough for me to read!
The Asian Machiavelli, I call it.