The Clumsy Angel and Other Writings

A young man believes he has found love in a crowded café, but desire and jealousy turn every glance into a puzzle. In The Clumsy Angel, friendship and attraction become inseparable, and the narrator’s confidence repeatedly gives way to uncertainty.

In A False Rubens, a visitor to Karuizawa discovers a widening distance between the woman he meets and the beautiful figure he creates in his imagination. Around these stories, Hori Tatsuo writes with affectionate irony about an old pipe and argues for the quiet originality of the French writer Raymond Radiguet.

These early works, first published between 1927 and 1930, reveal Hori’s interest in modern perception, intimate feeling, and the unstable boundary between art and experience. This new English translation preserves all five supplied entries, including the complete duplicate occurrence of A False Rubens. Concise notes explain literary references, period terms, and textual details. AI-assisted translation.