Reviews

Murder in the Age of Enlightenment: Essential Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

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snivets's review against another edition

4.0

Some very interesting short stories, a wonderful and naturally translated set of works as I now expect from Pushkin Press.

Hell Screen *really* sticks with me — simply fantastic — but all of them taken together do have themes of a darkly troubled mind, which makes thematic sense with the war years in Japan. The last story, and its veering into autobiography territory, I found extremely disconcerting and devastating, considering the author's own suicide. It's also interesting to see how well Rashomon works as a written work (I know this came first, but Kurosawa executes it so well as a film you'll forgive me for wondering if it possibly works as well in text).

pivotal's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

thesupermassive's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective fast-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

lriza's review against another edition

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dark mysterious

4.25

caseyreadslol's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.25

my favorite story was cogwheels, but murder in the age of enlightenment and hell screen also stood out to me. I find short story collections difficult to rate; cogwheels makes me wish to give this a higher rating but there was also the general, which likely was my least favorite of the collection and may not even be above 3 stars to me.