Dew on the Shallot Leaves and Other Writings

Guinevere, the Lady of Shalott, and Elaine inhabit a lyrical Arthurian world of forbidden love, fragile hope, and mortality in Sōseki’s “Dew on the Shallot Leaves.”

Four accompanying prose pieces recall Masaoka Shiki, an education marked by idleness and failure, and the distinction between sincerity and heroic self-advertisement.

All five supplied Japanese works are translated completely. The essays’ recorded publication dates range from 1906 to 1910; the supplied metadata does not date the romance. Sōseki’s stated alterations of Arthurian material and selected textual inconsistencies are preserved and explained.