Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. His attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a clown to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.

Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, No Longer Human is an important and unforgettable modern classic: The struggle of the individual to fit into a normalizing society remains just as relevant today as it was at the time of writing. (The Japan Times)

A fictional writer in his thirties named Osamu Dazai has just mailed his publisher an awful manuscript, filling him with dread and shame. Wandering along a river in a nearby park in suburban Tokyo, he meets a high-school dropout and the two get into an intellectual spat. Eventually, Dazai finds himself agreeing to perform in the boy's place that very night as the live narrator of a film screening...

So begins the madcap adventure of The Beggar Student, where there is glamor in destitution and glimmerings of truth in intellectual one-upmanship. Replete with settings straight out of the popular anime Bungo Stray Dogs and echoes of the themes in No Longer Human, this biting novella captures the infamous Japanese writer at his mordant best.

The Flowers of Buffoonery opens in a seaside sanitarium where Yozo Oba--the narrator of No Longer Human at a younger age--is being kept after a failed suicide attempt. While he is convalescing, his friends and family visit him, and other patients and nurses drift in and out of his room. Against this dispiriting backdrop, everyone tries to maintain a lighthearted, even clownish atmosphere: playing cards, smoking cigarettes, vying for attention, cracking jokes, and trying to make each other laugh.

While No Longer Human delves into the darkest corners of human consciousness, The Flowers of Buffoonery pokes fun at these same emotions: the follies and hardships of youth, of love, and of self-hatred and depression. A glimpse into the lives of a group of outsiders in prewar Japan, The Flowers of Buffoonery is a darkly humorous and fresh addition to Osamu Dazai's masterful and intoxicating oeuvre.

No one really understands how we suffer. One day, when we're adults, we may come to recall this suffering, this misery, as silly and laughable, but how are we to get through the long, hateful period until then? No one bothers to teach us that.

Osamu Dazai was a master raconteur who plumbed--in an addictive, easy style--the absurd complexities of life in a society whose expectations cannot be met without sacrificing one's individual ideals on the altar of conformity. The gravitational pull of his prose is on full display in these stories. In Lantern, a young woman, in love with a well-born but impoverished student, shoplifts a bathing suit for him--and ends up in the local newspaper indicted as a crazed, degenerate communist. In Chiyojo, a high-school girl shows early promise as a writer, but as her uncle and mother relentlessly push her to pursue a literary career, she must ask herself: is this what I really want? Or am I supposed to fulfill their own frustrated ambitions? In Shame, a young reader writes a fan letter to a writer she admires, only to find out, upon visiting him, that he's a bourgeoise sophisticate nothing like the desperate rebels he portrays, and decides (in true Dazai style): Novelists are human trash. No, they're worse than that; they're demons. . . They write nothing but lies.

This collection of 14 tales--a half-dozen of which have never before appeared in English--is based on a Japanese collection of, as Dazai described them, soliloquies by female narrators. No One Knows includes the quietly brilliant long story Schoolgirl and shows the fiction of this 20th-century genius in a fresh light.

A journey to hell with Osamu Dazai, Japan's ultimate bad boy novelist --Damian Flanagan, The Japan Times

No Longer Human is the story of Yozo Oba, who, from early childhood, finds it impossible to form meaningful relationships with family or friends. As a child he copes by acting the fool--mocking himself while entertaining others. As an adult he turns to alcohol, sex and drugs, which lead to his eventual self-destruction.

Originally written in 1948 and based closely on Dazai's own life, the timeless and universal themes of social alienation, failure and one man's inner torture at his inability to feel like a normal human still resonate with young people everywhere, making this an enduring international classic.

This contemporary translation will be welcomed by all fans of modern Japanese literature as well as by readers familiar with Osamu Dazai. After Soseki Natsume, Osamu Dazai is Japan's most popular writer. Dazai is enjoying a surge in interest among young people today thanks to the success of the manga, anime and film series Bungo Stray Dogs, whose protagonist, a detective named Osamu Dazai, is based on the real-life author.

Dazai's brand of egoistic pessimism dovetails organically with the emo chic of this cultural moment and with the inner lives of teenagers of all eras. --Andrew Martin, The New York Times

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. His attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a clown to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness. Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, No Longer Human is an important and unforgettable modern classic: The struggle of the individual to fit into a normalizing society remains just as relevant today as it was at the time of writing. (The Japan Times)

Art dies the moment it acquires authority. So said Japan's quintessential rebel writer Osamu Dazai, who, disgusted with the hypocrisy of every kind of establishment, from the nation's obsolete aristocracy to its posturing, warmongering generals, went his own way, even when that meant his death--and the death of others. Faced with pressure to conform, he declared his individuality to the world--in all its self-involved, self-conscious, and self-hating glory. Art, he wrote, is 'I.'

In these short stories, collected and translated by Ralph McCarthy, we can see just how closely Dazai's life mirrored his art, and vice versa, as the writer/narrator falls from grace, rises to fame, and falls again. Addiction, debt, shame, and despair dogged Dazai until his self-inflicted death, and yet despite all the lies and deception he resorted to in life, there is an almost fanatical honesty to his writing. And that has made him a hero to generations of readers who see laid bare, in his works, the painful, impossible contradictions inherent in the universal commandment of social life--fit in and do as you are told--as well as the possibility, however desperate, of defiance.

Long out of print, these stories will be a revelation to the legions of new fans of No Longer Human, The Setting Sun, and The Flowers of Buffoonery.

... translator O'Brien excels, his unembellished use of language allowing the comically dry but fraught moments of Dazai's prose to flourish. --Asian Review of Books

Best-known for his novels No Longer Human and The Setting Sun, Dazai was also an acclaimed writer of short stories, experimenting with a wide variety of styles and bringing to each work a sophisticated sense of humor, a broad empathy for the human condition and a tremendous literary talent. The twenty stories in this collection include:

• Memories -- An autobiographical tale in which Dazai relates episodes from his own childhood and adolescence, showing his relationship with his family and his tendency towards introspection and self-dramatization


• On the Question of Apparel -- A comic tour-de-force in which Dazai examines the hold that fashion has over him and how it relates to his own pathetic self-image


• A Poor Man's Got His Pride -- A retelling of a story by 18th-century master of burlesque fiction Ihara Saikaku, about a fallen samurai who lives in poverty


• The Sound of Hammering -- A love story set against the backdrop of the rebuilding of Tokyo after the city was totally destroyed during World War Two


• And sixteen other stories!

**Recommended for readers 16 years & up. Not intended for high school classroom use due to adult content.**

A Penguin Classics Graphic Deluxe Edition

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a clown to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness. Semi-autobiographical, No Longer Human is the final completed work of one of Japan's most important writers. It has come to echo the sentiments of youth (The Mainichi Daily News) from post-war Japan to the postmodern society of technology. Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, No Longer Human is a powerful exploration of an individual's alienation from society.

This manga version of novelist Osamu Dazai's masterpiece NO LONGER HUMAN--the #2 bestselling novel of all time in Japan--tells the story of Yozo Oba, a young man growing up in Japan in the immediate aftermath of World War II, who finds himself caught between the disintegration of the traditions of his aristocratic provincial family and the impact of the new postwar world.

Oba is tormented by a failure to find any value in himself or in human relationships, despite being surrounded by women who love him. He creates the persona of a buffoon who mocks himself while entertaining others. But inside he is tortured, and as he moves from childhood to adulthood he becomes addicted to sex and alcohol. Largely autobiographical, No Longer Human explores Dazai's own sense of failure and alienation which drove him to self-destruct with alcohol and numerous suicide attempts.

Osamu Dazai (1909--1948) is Japan's second most popular novelist (after Soseki), and his works are seeing a huge surge in popularity among young people worldwide thanks to the success of the recent manga, anime and film series Bungo Stray Dogs, whose protagonist, a detective called Osamu Dazai, has similar character traits to Yozo Oba. Fans of manga and anime are turning to the original No Longer Human novel, whose themes of alienation from society and an inability to reconcile social appearances with inner self--told with great wit, irony and pathos--strike a deep chord among readers today.

**Recommended for readers ages 16+ due to mature themes and graphic content**

This is the first manga edition in English of The Setting Sun, Osamu Dazai's classic novel, often considered his masterpiece.

Set in the aftermath of World War II, this is the story of Kazuko, a strong-willed young woman from an aristocratic family that has fallen into poverty since the war. The book follows Kazuko's journey as she and her family struggle to survive and adapt to the harsh new conditions. In addition to having to move from Tokyo to the countryside, where she is forced to work in the fields to support the family, she has to deal with a difficult divorce, the birth of a stillborn child, and the return of her drug-addicted brother from the war. This gripping and inspiring portrait of one woman's determination to survive in a society that is in the grip of a social and moral crisis tells one story in a fast-changing world, with universal themes that resonates with readers today.

After Soseki Natsume, Osamu Dazai is Japan's most popular writer. Dazai is enjoying a surge in interest among young people today thanks to the success of the manga, anime and film series Bungo Stray Dogs, whose protagonist, a detective named Osamu Dazai, is based on the real-life author.

**Recommended for readers ages 16+ due to mature themes and graphic content**

The war is over. Japan is defeated. As his country rebuilds, a young man must fight disease and rebuild his life. He will start at a peculiar sanatorium, where everyone gets a nickname, and where he is surrounded by an odd assortment of patients and caregivers.

Osamu Dazai was a leading Japanese modern fiction writer who wrote in the genre of the I novel. His work reflected his troubled life, but Pandora's Box is one of his optimistic novels.

Around that time, I started reading your novels, which had me realize there was such a way of living, and it felt like I had discovered an aim in life. I'm a poor child like you. I wanted to meet you. On New Year's Day three years ago, I was glad to see you for the first time in a very long time. Seeing your freewheeling way of getting drunk made me envy you to the point that I was jealous. This, I thought, was an honest way to live a life. No ostentation, no flattery, and yet a life lived mightily with pride on one's own. How enviable to live such a life.

Dazai's timeless tale of fame, doubt, family, and critics in a brand new translation from Maplopo. This Masters of Story edition also includes the previously published Wish Fulfilled (no longer in print), as well as the full Aftertalk with Dazai's translators, Doc and Reiko Kane.

Doubt... the swell of Should I? Can I?

It's common, of course, to think everything we're facing is new... that only we know what this must feel like. How silly we are. Confide in a parent, ask a wise friend, read a timeless book.

Dazai's 1942 story is, in fact, so relevant that the primary theme of the book is one you likely keep running into-no searching required... just a scroll here, a click there.

We read about 1990's band Silverchair, and how the sudden worldwide attention they'd received as teenagers changed them-and not always for the better; about the upcoming, posthumous, musical from Stephen Sondheim and the considerable debate concerning whether or not the play is/was actually finished, and if so, when. A curious story to be sure, particularly because this concept is precisely what we tackle in our introduction to Daffodil.

These days, we run into a lot of people who say they never read. That they're not readers, per se. And, that's a shame. Because, we fear in making this statement (almost with pride it seems), that these friends and acquaintances are acting almost as if the embodiment of the context Dazai lays bare for us so elegantly in this short story.

Daffodil is now out there in the ether for you grab. Enjoy.

This is the third in the Maplopo Masters of Story collection.

Additional English translations of Japanese literature include:

Legend of the Master, by Nakajima Atsushi

Wind, Light, and the Twenty-Year-Old Me, by Sakaguchi Ango

Place: Tsugaru in Aomori Prefecture, Japan Time: Spring 1944

As World War II was coming to an end, Osamu Dazai (born Shuji Tsushima) returned to his home in the northern tip of Honshu, Japan on assignment from a publisher to travel and write about the part of Japan where he was born and raised.

He writes with humor and warmth about old friends, the people (family and servants) who nurtured him, his obsession with crabs, and his worries over sake in times of rationing. He writes with pride about his home even as he learns about some of its customs and history for the first time. This travel journal is part travelogue, part history lesson, and part love story.

Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) was a twentieth century Japanese author. He is best known for the novels The Setting Sun and No Longer Human.