On Writing and the Self

In these twenty-two essays, prefaces, and announcements, Natsume Sōseki considers the writer’s life from the inside. He recalls his troubled years in London, asks why fictional characters should do more than exchange clever opinions, defends the painful experience of reading Soil, and remembers his friend Masaoka Shiki. The three prefaces to I Am a Cat and brief announcements for Sanshirō, And Then, and Kokoro reveal a novelist thinking aloud about his own books. This new English translation preserves each selected piece in full and includes concise notes and source information.

A collection of short works; the novels discussed are not included. Some prefaces reveal endings.