A review by laurablackwell
Kwaidan: Japanese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn

4.0

Kwaidan is a fascinating look into supernatural and strange tales of Japan at the turn of the twentieth century. Lafcadio Hearn wrote these traditional stories in beautiful but straightforward English; he often gave cultural context and snippets of the original Japanese as well. Most of the stories are ghost stories or monster tales. However, the last section discusses insects, both in Japanese and Chinese strange tales and in comments from Western philosophers. Its original title, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things accurate

I have a few issues with this particular edition. It overemphasizes the ghost stories by changing the title slightly to Kwaidan: Japanese Ghost Stories. A number of typos (beyond antiquated punctuation) crop up. Although the edition is full of beautiful color images, they are credited by owner only. It's nice to know what museum houses a certain image, but I'm not going to be able to travel to all of them to find out who the artist was and who or what the art depicts.

I give this edition four stars. If I found a preferable edition, I would give it five.