Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things
Gelesen von LibriVox Volunteers
Lafcadio Hearn
(4,614 Sterne; 22 Bewertungen)
Most of the following Kwaidan, or Weird Tales, have been taken from old Japanese books,— such as the Yaso-Kidan, Bukkyo-Hyakkwa-Zensho, Kokon-Chomonshu, Tama-Sudare, and Hyaku-Monogatari. Some of the stories may have had a Chinese origin: the very remarkable "Dream of Akinosuke," for example, is certainly from a Chinese source. But the story-teller, in every case, has so recolored and reshaped his borrowing as to naturalize it… One queer tale, "Yuki-Onna," was told me by a farmer of Chofu, Nishitama-gori, in Musashi province, as a legend of his native village. Whether it has ever been written in Japanese I do not know; but the extraordinary belief which it records used certainly to exist in most parts of Japan, and in many curious forms… The incident of "Riki-Baka" was a personal experience; and I wrote it down almost exactly as it happened, changing only a family-name mentioned by the Japanese narrator. (Summary by L. Hearn, from the Introduction to the book) (3 hr 51 min)
Chapters
Bewertungen
tony gregson
(4,5 Sterne)
The readers are all good in that they each bring a narrative character to the stories through their different voices. Some bring the narrator alive a participant, others tend to let the text speak more for itself. The stories have an anthropological quality that gives an sense of Japanese life where the wierd and the horrific is rarely footnoted in Western traditions.
Very Enjoyable
Lucy_k_p
(5 Sterne)
An entertaining collection of stories that made 4 hours of vacuuming and cleaning mirrors much more bearable. All of the readers were excellent - well paced and perfectly understandable. There are a few spine-chilling moments and listeners get to learn a lot about Japanese folklore.
A patchy collection
Timothy Ferguson
(4 Sterne)
It's not really a single book. Japanese ghost stories at the front, musings on ths spiritual meaning of the social organisation of insects at the back. The ghost stories are great, though. IMO: stop there unless you like a bit of theology.
A fascinating reading
Chickadee Yellowfinch
(5 Sterne)
Thank you for this wonderful recording, it is greatly appreciated -- all the time and effort of the volunteers
Gerard Kelly
(3,5 Sterne)
some good stories some bad.some good readers one or two terrible readers. all-in-all and entertaining collection
A true comfort listen
Eric Merz
(4,5 Sterne)
whenever I