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Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination

by Edogawa Rampo, James B. Harris (Translator)

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 556 ratings · 76 reviews

Collected in this chilling volume are some of the famous Japanese mystery writer Edowaga RampoÆs best stories—bizarre and blood-curdling expeditions into the fantastic, the perverse, and the strange, in a marvelous homage to Rampo's literary "mentor," Edgar Allan Poe.

Paperback, 240 pages

Published December 15th 1989 by Tuttle Publishing (first published 1956)

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Aug 01, 2011 Mariel rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: armiel

Recommended to Mariel by: ramlie

The perfect murder. Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination, or, as it should have been called, How to do the bloody deed and get away with it without facing criminal charges or the accusing finger of society (the bird, probably). No civil suits, no karmic payback! No coming back as a roach in the next life, that's right. It's essentially the same perfect murder in a lot of the stories. The getting away with it the appeal rather than the murder (wouldn't anything else work just as well?). It...more The perfect murder. Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination, or, as it should have been called, How to do the bloody deed and get away with it without facing criminal charges or the accusing finger of society (the bird, probably). No civil suits, no karmic payback! No coming back as a roach in the next life, that's right. It's essentially the same perfect murder in a lot of the stories. The getting away with it the appeal rather than the murder (wouldn't anything else work just as well?). It's like how all of the long and short cons of today are the same old long and short cons of yesteryear with a few tweaks here and there. Murder is a chili with the right amount of seasonings. The ideal blend is in the next spoonful. If you can live with yourself. If you can live as someone else then you have created the perfect alibi. I was them and they were me.

He (Edogawa is not his real name. He was trying to make the authorities think that Edgar Allen Poe was the culprit. Anagrams are so obvious!) tried to kill me. Paper cuts, falling asleep with the book on my face when I had left it on the pillow when I went to sleep. He had plans a, b and all the way through z. It was plan f that nearly did me in. I'm used to breathing through my mouth because I suffer from bad allergies in the spring time. The book on the face didn't work. I don't know if the crafty and craftier Rampo planned this or not. Probably. He comes back more times than Rambo. The pages over my eyes caused the ink to bleed into my eyeballs (I wasn't crying in my sleep. It was the dust that made my tear ducts leak!) and the words eased into my sleeping vision like a pink flashback from Saved by the Bell. The page on my cheek rising and falling with my ragged breath (allergies are a nightmare). Edogawa Rambo took over my subconcious mind. They were not my own feet walking in my dreams. I was Edogawa Rambo's mind corners. The trains of thought went to new worlds and I couldn't really get in because I didn't have the proper papers. I was the human chair man loving the bodies of another, their unknowing flesh to his one sided skin, in his hidden home of voyeurism and secondhand life and love. Touching is being touched. Murder through losing yourself, becoming another person in another's soul windows rather than your own, doing the same to others with your own eyes. See what you want to see. Hear no evil. To relate to the chair man (how could I not, as much as I read?) and then "Hey, did I make you think?" non-sucker punch line. Well, one of us is a sucker. "It's just a story" like people say to deny the sustaining of inner life and death. Murderer! To feel the writer's eyes behind the page would be living as the human chair. Real or not real wasn't the point.

That's what sucks about short stories. They end and you can't go any further. It is awful to be killed that way! To lose the voice in the back of my mind that says "Hey! These endings are the opposite of a punch line. I get the feeling he wants to say the true horror is in the desires rather than the action. Nothing happens for good or evil. Fucking impotence. All of the scares are the stuffed and mounted cat in Scooby-Doo episodes and I'm not reading my own mind anymore. Trapped in a purgatory of wicked impulses." It would have been better to feel those desires, rather than be the recipient of them that way of did I make you think? To know how the wife felt the pleasure of torturing her utterly helpless husband. To feel it myself. What's in theory? The best moment was the grim satisfaction in his eyes (his sole expression. He was murdered in voice and body language of love) looking at newspaper articles and medals of war for his "sacrifice". If I knew why the wife enjoyed her power, why the husband enjoyed being a martyr, I would have lived in the story. I could imagine better the sick satisfaction of being harmed because I have spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself. "Sacrifice this!"

Killed. If one could make someone else have a somnambulistic experience that is how they would do it. Sleepwalking, nightmare walking, daymare walking. All in shoes that are not your own but you don't notice the clown killer shoes are too big for your size eights. That's how you get away with it. You're gonna get caught if you stop to think! If I'm right that Rampo's getting away with it was about the mental hold and free will thing over messy clean-ups.

Plan Z he sent my twin to try and take my face. I couldn't tell the difference. Did it work?(less)

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Nov 25, 2012 Bill Kerwin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: detective-mystery, weird-fiction, weird-detectives

Edogowa Rampo--just say his pen name quickly three times to discover how much he loved Edgar Allen Poe--is considered the first and foremost writer of Japanese mystery fiction. He is also much more.

His stories, structured as popular "entertainments," are designed to convey all the pleasures of genre, and yet they possess an elegance and intellectual complexity greater than mere popular works. In this Rampo resembles Borges, and yet the two writers are very different. Borges is more philosophica...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Artur Coelho rated it 5 of 5 stars

O escritor japonês Hirai Tarō inspirou-se em Edgar Allan Poe para o seu pseudónimo, Edogawa Ranpo. Não é só no nome adoptado que se notam as influências. O estilo e a estranheza dos contos deste Japanese Tales of Mistery and Imagination parecem decalcados de alguns dos melhores contos do autor norte-americano. O que não significa que sejam cópias. São antes uma mistura muito sublime de carácter nipónico e estilo literário ocidental.

Os nove contos deste livro caracterizam-se por uma construção r...more O escritor japonês Hirai Tarō inspirou-se em Edgar Allan Poe para o seu pseudónimo, Edogawa Ranpo. Não é só no nome adoptado que se notam as influências. O estilo e a estranheza dos contos deste Japanese Tales of Mistery and Imagination parecem decalcados de alguns dos melhores contos do autor norte-americano. O que não significa que sejam cópias. São antes uma mistura muito sublime de carácter nipónico e estilo literário ocidental.

Os nove contos deste livro caracterizam-se por uma construção rigorosa que deixa o inesperado para os últimos parágrafos, o que não é tarefa fácil se atendermos aos mistérios que lhes dão origem. Há nesta obra uma preocupação com o crime perfeito, com laivos de Raskolnikov mas sem torturas morais, mas essencialmente este é um livro de estranha sensibilidade. Obsessão - quer com o acto de assassinar, quer com estilos de vida, quer com monomanias pessoais, é a pedra de toque destes contos. Os temas são surreais: temos um conto sobre um homem que se esconde dentro de um sofá para sentir o toque de mulheres (que o autor desmonta brilhantemente em duas frases no final); um assassino que é apanhado por ser demasiado cuidadoso ao prever os pormenores da investigação; uma mulher que cuida de um marido inválido de guerra, desfigurado, incapaz de falar e amputado de braços e pernas; uma mulher que consegue causar a morte a dois maridos manipulando perfeitamente os acasos; um homem tão fascinado por telescópios e espelhos que enlouquece dentro de um espelho esférico; um assassino que toma literalmente o lugar do seu irmão gémeo; um conto de arrepiar em que o poder de poucas palavras é uma arma fatal (outro que o autor desmonta brilhantemente no parágrafo final); um velho que descobre que o trauma que lhe paralisou a vida não passou de uma ilusão bem orquestrada; e, finalizando, um momento surreal sobre um apaixonado que se embrenha literalmente na figura da mulher amada e acaba como uma imagem num quadro.

Oscilando entre o horror delicado e o mistério puro, estes nove surpreendentes contos mostram a obra de um mestre deste género literário, que apesar da confessa influência de Poe tem uma voz muito pessoal, estranha, bizarra, onde a sensibilidade nipónica se mescla com a técnica literária ocidental. Um autor a descobrir.(less)

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Oct 23, 2011 Clint rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. While this wasn't quite as good as I was thinking it was going to be, it was, at times, much weirder. The first story, The Human Chair, was one of the best, but then, at the end of the story, just thrown on in the last couple of paragraphs, you find out it wasn't real, "but don't you think I'm a good writer?" What the fuck? Why would he (the writer) do that? It was great, and would have ended perfectly if he'd just cut off the end. He did the exact same thing later in another story, The Red Cham...more

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Jan 06, 2011 Nesa Sivagnanam rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is apparently the first volume of its kind translated into English way back in 1956. There are nine rather odd stories. Certainly they are unlike similar tales coming out of the West.

There is a story of a quadruple amputee and his relationship with his wife. He's a war hero but is effectively a caterpillar now wrapped in his clothes. It's a tragic, terrible tale of two people bound and trapped together.

Then we have a very ugly carpenter who makes a chair destined for a hotel. The chair is...more

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Aug 07, 2007 Poorfish rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people that like weird stories

Shelves: fiction

Cool, creepy, nicely crafted short stories from Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo. Sadly, very little of his work has been translated. The only shortcoming of this collection is that the themes of the stories start to blend together. But most of the stories are 5 star status such as the two stand-outs The Human Chair (a guy hides himself inside a chair to experience contact with others), The Caterpillar (a limbless war veteran is slowly tortured by his resentful lover).

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Dec 30, 2012 Bei rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

Presented in short stories, these tales did not strive for technical complication in plots, but guided the reader through the entwining lane ways in the darker part of human psyche. There is a lot to miss about classic Japanese mystery writings in early 1900s, and this is an excellent introduction to Rampo's universe.

Many elements in this book are of typical fascination in this genre: mirrors, wells, twins, sleepwalking, obsessions… Not all the stories are about killing, and not all the killing...more

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May 01, 2011 Gardy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantascienza, urania, giappone

Stavolta mi sento di dover fare un distinguo per giustificare la votazione.

Edogawa Ranpo è un grandissimo scrittore di mistero e di detective stories, quindi per il contenuto della raccolta mi sento di consigliare vivamente (come ho fatto da ben prima della pubblicazione) questo volume: seppur tra alti e bassi, l'immenso "la sedia umana" e gli ottimi "la camera rossa" e "il viaggiatore con il quadro di stoffa" sapranno darvi quel piccolo brivido che alcuni lamentano di non provare più dopo la l...more Stavolta mi sento di dover fare un distinguo per giustificare la votazione.

Edogawa Ranpo è un grandissimo scrittore di mistero e di detective stories, quindi per il contenuto della raccolta mi sento di consigliare vivamente (come ho fatto da ben prima della pubblicazione) questo volume: seppur tra alti e bassi, l'immenso "la sedia umana" e gli ottimi "la camera rossa" e "il viaggiatore con il quadro di stoffa" sapranno darvi quel piccolo brivido che alcuni lamentano di non provare più dopo la lettura del padre putativo di questo genere, Edgar Allan Poe, la cui ombra si staglia imponente su questa raccolta. E anche nei racconti più deboli come "la rupe" e "i gemelli" quanto manca al plot, invecchiato molto con l'evoluzione di questo genere, viene compensato da quel tipico respiro e distacco che possiedono i narratori giapponesi. Ancora una volta le storie di malattia e menomazione vengono ritratte assai vividamente da Ranpo, che pare particolarmente ferrato in questo frangente, come altri suoi connazionali.

Le note dolenti arrivano tutte con le scelte editoriali. Innanzitutto questo è un titolo bellissimo, ma non è un titolo da Urania Collezione. Semplicemente non è fantascienza, si tratta di mystery e detective story, che trovano collocazione nelle collane giallo mondadori. Perciò il lettore poco accorto potrebbe rimanere tradito da questa scelta editoriale.
Per non parlare dell'adattamento: raggelante. In molti hanno lodato la genesi di questa traduzione, raccontata nella postfazione. Capisco perchè si sia deciso di non tradurre direttamente dal giapponese, ma qui manca un lavoro di editing e di semplice rilettura. In alcuni passaggi è evidente che chi traduce non conosce il contesto giapponese, ma la cosa più triste sono sviste grossolane come "verso il tardi" (pagina 127) o "il leggere kimono" (pag 191) e almeno una decina di errori simili. Per non parlare di costruzioni evidentemente ricalcate come struttura dall'inglese e che suonano poco smussate in italiano, come una prima traduzione letterale; problematiche che una semplice rilettura, anche di una persona non competente, avrebbe potuto ovviare.

Per concludere, lo consiglio non agli amanti di Urania, ma agli amanti del mystery e della letteratura giapponese, che non possono perdersi questa perla. Bocciato invece su tutta la linea il lavoro compiuto da Urania, che ruba una stelletta al totale e ancora una volta delude le aspettative del suo esigente, ma fedele, pubblico. (less)

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Jul 30, 2011 Isidore rated it 4 of 5 stars

This collection of nine short stories, originally published in 1956, marked the first appearance in English translation of work by Japan's preeminent writer of thrillers and horror, and it's a striking illustration of Western cultural xenophobia that there really hasn't been much more published in the years since.

Some of the stories are fairly straightforward riffs on Western detective fiction, and there is some repetition in this particular assortment of tales, notably the overuse of the motif...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Feras rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Divided as "Tales of Imagination", pieces of intrigue & psychological thrillers, and "Tales of Mystery", crime stories. Besides in the introduction no actual distinction is used in the book, the nine stores are randomly ordered. The themes are really different, in all the crime stories only one features a detective figure and he's not even the main character. The focus is generally on the Perfect Crime, with the murderer narrating the story. Very cool I thought.

The stories are generally very...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Victoria Song rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, japan, horror

Edogawa Rampo. Edgar Allan Poe. Say each five times fast and you'll see they start to blend together.

Though Hirai Taro took the Japanese pronunciation of Edgar Allan Poe as his penname, the works featured in this collection remind me more of Ray Bradbury and the mystery genre rather than horror—though it's easy to see Poe's influence in some of the stories, particularly "The Human Chair" and "The Red Chamber."

All in all, Edogawa Rampo's stories are eerie, weird and feel like the old mysteries of...more

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May 05, 2011 Hayley Farr rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: san-francisco-bookshelf

Few people realize that Edogawa Rampo takes his name from the Japanese pronunciation of "Edgar Allen Poe" (Edoga Waram Po if that helps) but in this collection of short stories the inspiration is clear. This book contains stories of the macabre and the shocking that ultimately could be taken right out of a collection of Poe stories. "The Human Chair" included as the first story, is definitely one of his more famous stories. However I would suggest that my favourite from the collection is "The Tr...more

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May 07, 2009 Jimmy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: top-100

Edogawa Rampo derived his pen name from the classic American thriller writer Edgar Allan Poe. And as such, Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination Paperback is a collection of short stories that emote the same sense of foreboding that his American counter-part did. Set primarily in the phantasmagoric culture of early 20th century Japan, each story captures the reader's imagination as it blurs the line between what is real and what is not. Prepare to question even what YOU think is true in this...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Luke rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A masterful collection of weird tales by Japanese author Hirai Taro, whose pen-name is both a direct Japanese rendering of Poe's name and a version of the term 'chaotic ramblings'.

Without giving too much away, many of the stories rely on the Poe model: a tormented protagonist telling his terrible story. The usual suspects: body horror, enclosure, concealed murder - all appear, though there's a uniquely folksy, almost supernatural feeling to the proceedings.

Great and creepy, there's a lot of id...more

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Mar 06, 2010 Dave M. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: pop-fic

I discovered this book from the anime - Case Closed (or Detective Conan.) The protagonist of the anime has to make up an alias, so he comes up with Conan Edogawa. As in, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Rampo. I'm a big Sherlock fan so naturally I wanted to see what Rampo was like.

Well, this book was like crack to me. For some reason, I'm not sure. They just feel like the kind of stories told around a fireplace, which I love. A lot of them are disgusting, but if you like mysteries you'll dig t...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Marissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, short-stories, horror

Three stars might be a little harsh on this one, although the writing style in it did get a little irritating toward the end. This book is written by an author who very purposefully styled himself as the Japanese answer to Edgar Allen Poe and he stays very true to that moniker. Definitely a few of these stories have genuinely clever, creepy things in them and are even fairly well written, however there were some definite holes in some of the stories and I wasn't totally convinced as he got deepe...more

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May 18, 2013 Kavita rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ghosts-and-horror, mystery, short-stories

This book of short stories based in Japan is really delightful. Each story is unique and ends in a surprise twist that can really astonish. Mostly, I couldn't guess where the story was leading, which in my opinion, counts as great writing.

There has been a lot written on the perfect murder, but a couple of the stories get quite close to it. There are a couple of weird science fiction stories, but even they weren't boring.

The translation is pretty good and the narrative flows easily. This is a boo...more

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May 09, 2012 Saretta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: edition-urania, horror, edition-pack, edition-short-stories, sf

L'antologia è interessante, senza questo libro non avrei probabilmente mai letto racconti giapponesi del mistero. I racconti sono ben scritti (o meglio ben ri-ritradotti), è molto difficile capire quanto lo stile dell'autore potrebbe essere stato modificato.
Mi associo comunque ad altri che hanno già scritto una recensione: i racconti con Urania non hanno punti in comune, i lettori appassionati di autori giapponesi saranno invece pienamente soddisfatti.
I racconti che ho preferito sono "La sedia U...more

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Dec 03, 2011 Phakin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

มันไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าศพผู้คนที่เกลื่อนกลาดท้องถนน และโดนด่าว่า "ถ้ามึงอยู่บ้านจะตายไหม?" ไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าการมีนายกรัฐมนตรี นักการเมือง ผู้นำเหล่าทัพเป็นฆาตกรคนแล้วคนเล่า ไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าการจับประชาชนเข้าคุกเข้าตารางเป็นปี สิบปี ยี่สิบปี ตลอลชีวิตบัดซบ ด้วยกฎหมายตอหลดตอแหลที่ประกอบสร้างจากความอาฆาตพยาบาลของพวกอีหลีต และความจงรักภักดีอันคมกริบราวกริชจ้วงแทงสถาบันฯของเหล่าอัลตร้ารอยัลลิสต์ "น้ำเงินแท้" หน้ามืดตามัว มันไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าการล้อมปราบ ฆ่า สังหาร ข่มขืน ทารุณกรรม ตล...more มันไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าศพผู้คนที่เกลื่อนกลาดท้องถนน และโดนด่าว่า "ถ้ามึงอยู่บ้านจะตายไหม?" ไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าการมีนายกรัฐมนตรี นักการเมือง ผู้นำเหล่าทัพเป็นฆาตกรคนแล้วคนเล่า ไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าการจับประชาชนเข้าคุกเข้าตารางเป็นปี สิบปี ยี่สิบปี ตลอลชีวิตบัดซบ ด้วยกฎหมายตอหลดตอแหลที่ประกอบสร้างจากความอาฆาตพยาบาลของพวกอีหลีต และความจงรักภักดีอันคมกริบราวกริชจ้วงแทงสถาบันฯของเหล่าอัลตร้ารอยัลลิสต์ "น้ำเงินแท้" หน้ามืดตามัว มันไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าการล้อมปราบ ฆ่า สังหาร ข่มขืน ทารุณกรรม ตลอดเดือนเมษา ตุลา พฤษภา และเดือนอื่นๆบนหน้าปฏิทิน ไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าการกดขี่ข่มเหงของผู้มีอันจะกินบางท่านที่พร้อมจะเหยียบหัวใครก็ตามให้จมดินเพื่อได้เดินเฉิดฉายอย่างมีสง่าราศีบนคอนกรีตศิวิไลซ์แห่งสยามฯ (ประเทศ) และมันไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าทุ่งสังหารคอมมิวนิสต์ที่นาบัว และทุ่งสังหารหลายต่อหลายแห่งในประเทศนี้ที่เลือดได้หล่อเลี้ยงเมล็ดแห่งความโกรธแค้นเกลียดชังและความอยุติธรรมที่ถูกกลบฝังใต้ดินระแหงจนเติบใหญ่เป็นพงพฤกษ์หลากพรรณรอวันจะชำแรกแหวก "ฟ้า" มันไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าผู้คนรอบตัวของเรา ผู้คนในประเทศของเรา ไม่ได้สยองขวัญไปกว่าตัวเรา หรือใคร.

หากปรารถนาความสยองขวัญก็จงเปิดหน้าหนังสือพิมพ์ เข้าอินเตอร์เน็ต ดูโทรทัศน์ แอบฟังหรือพูดคุยกับผู้คนใจไม้ไส้ระกำตามท้องถนน และได้โปรดอย่าอ่านหนังสือเล่มนี้เลย มันงดงามและบริสุทธิ์กว่าประเทศชาติบ้าบอนี้มากนัก

ด้วยความเคารพและเทิดทูน

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Apr 26, 2008 Dfordoom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror-gothic

The stories in Edogawa Rampo's collection “Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination” are ostensibly mysteries; in fact Rampo (according to the introduction) was Japan's first writer of mysteries. Many of these tales deal with obsessions of one kind or another. Often sexual obsessions, or obsessions connected in some with sex or have a sexual element. Some stories aren't crime stories at all - “The Hell of Mirrors” is simply about a man obsessed by mirrors, obsessed to the point of bringing abou...more

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Dec 04, 2007 Decendant_of_Darkness rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who like to read about people killing each other

Could you imagine being trapped in a crystal ball, killing people with simple words such as look out, or even killing your two husbands? No, well in the book Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination, by Edogawa Rampo has stories about all these things. But the most common thing in the stories, although this does not apply to every single one of them, is that it somehow involves murder. For example in the story The Red Chamber this guy kills 99 people, with simple words such as “LOOK OUT” or “...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Marian Dalton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, horror, translations

Nobody ... but nobody ... can do weird like Japanese writers. Yes, that's a generalisation, but between Suzuki, Harukami and Edogawa, they far outstrip anything produced by Anglophone writers.

It's not that what Edogawa writes is particularly spectacular; it's just ... unsettling. Deeply so. The stand-out story, 'The Human Chair', sets the tone for the kind of book where, every time you think you've reached the peak of weirdness, you look up and see how much more there is ahead of you.

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Oct 23, 2012 April rated it 3 of 5 stars

Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Edogawa Rampo
Charles E. Tuttle Company
1958

This book of short stories by Japanese author, Edogawa Rampo (Edgar Allan Poe) is full of mystery, murder, gore, and horrible things. Reading these stories, I was frightened that people with out remorse, like in the stories actually exist. It seems that every criminal in the stories are psychopaths. An easy way out for the author or a very Japanese view on crime?

3 stars. (I apologize for my rambling review.)

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Nov 30, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: big-red-circle

I found this at an Oxfam bookshop in Manchester, and it made my day. Best find of 2011! And this isn't the Rampo book I have already ordered through my local bookshop (and has yet to arrive). How lucky is that?

The Human Chair: My favourite. It's all gone a bit "Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected".

The Psychological Test: How to catch a criminal with word-association games.

The Caterpillar: Disturbing.

The Cliff: Not amazing.

The Hell of Mirrors: Nuts. I liked this line: "having now reached the age...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Tina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Yo no conocía a Edogawa Rampo pero este libro ha sido para mí una invitación para leer más de él. Sus cuentos son interesantes, con un toque de misterio pero una gran imaginación como lo dice el título, tanta que me transportó a mundos desconocidos e inigualables. Es un autor diferente, extraño, cuya obra no se puede olvidar fácilmente; a mí la lectura me pareció de empezar y no querer parar, de terminar el libro y lamentarlo, de fácil y animada lectura.

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Feb 08, 2011 Jim Hunnicutt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Taking his pen name from a Japanese translation of Edgar Allan Poe himself, Edogawa Rampo is considered to be the father of Japanese mystery writing. This is a collection of his short stories which all live up to the tradition set down by his hero. If you have never read or been familiar with the Japanese storytelling style, this is a great guide into that world of suspense and fright, which differs from what a modern Western reader may expect.

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Dec 13, 2010 Ezra rated it 5 of 5 stars

amazing stuff. the author's name is a pseudonym intended to suggest Edgar Allen Poe; early in his career the stories read like Poe parodies, but the grotestque twists keep getting more and more pronounced, with an emphasis on"deviant" sexuality (maybe it sold more serials). the woman who turns into a chair is a classic, still one of the weirdest stories i've encountered in any medium; a strangeness that you feel in your bones.

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Dec 07, 2011 Geku rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, owned, favorites, read-in-2011, japan-japanese

1. The Human Chair
2. The Psychological Test
3. The Caterpillar
4. The Cliff
5. The Hell of Mirrors
6. The Twins
7. The Red Chamber
8. Two Crippled Men
9. The Traveler with the Pasted Rag Picture

Most of these are pretty creepy and strange. And mesmerizing! Edogawa Rampo truly is the master of grotesque. I've had infinite inexplicable love for "The Human Chair" since I first read it a few years ago and the rest of these stories didn't let me down either. I'd say stories 1-4 and 7 were my favorites (I act...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Elena rated it 5 of 5 stars

Amazing... a new vision of mystery and terror. Endings are very unexpected and hard to guess, keeps you very interested all along. An interesting fact, the name Edogawa Rampo is the way Edgar Allan Poe sounds in Japanese. The author is such a fan of Poe that he chooses this name for him. Also in some of the tales you can sense a little bit of the macabre worlds Poe created. Great book.

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Aug 08, 2012 Christina rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this a while ago. The story of the man in the chair stuck with me - I think I finished that story standing in line at the grocery store and I never wanted to sit in a comfy chair again.

And then I read this story.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

So apparently this is a thing...?

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