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New Hamlet (Mass Market Paperback) (1974) ISBN: 4101006121 [Japanese Import]
原本出版年：1941 原本出版者：文芸春秋社本電子書籍は、国立国会図書館が所蔵し、インターネット上に公開している資料で、著作権保護期間が満了したタイトルの画像データを、Kindle本として最適化し制作したものです。Kindle本を制作するにあたり、原本からの修正を最小限の処理にとどめております。そのため、古書特有のページのきず、汚れ、ページの欠落などもそのまま残っている場合がございます。あらかじめご了承くださいますようお願い致します。Kindle本の内容は、無料サンプルをダウンロードしてご確認いただけます。
Paperback Bunko
First published July 1, 1941
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About the author
Osamu Dazai
1,141 books9,684 followersOsamu DAZAI (native name: 太宰治, real name Shūji Tsushima) was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan.
With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.
With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 6, 2026
(Lowkey Dazai's self insert, but tries to go under the name Hamlet.)
This took almost a year to translate and read, but I never regretted the task. Dazai's use of the original text continues to prove the extent of Shakespeare's ability to resonate with audiences beyond his own. Any familiar readers of Dazai could read moments in his Hamlet's monologues and point with a sigh, saying, "He's not even pretending to be Hamlet at this point. This is just 人間失格." The kabuki-styled moments and phrases created a drama that really highlighted both old and original moments to convey Dazai's social criticisms and personal worries.
Big-time fans of the original Hamlet will still be surprised at the plot changes, and new interpretations of characters. There are plentiful parallels both within Dazai's text, and across his translation to Shakespeare's.
One of the editor's notes explains that Dazai was writing under a time where public criticism against the Japanese monarch, and anti-war sentiment were heavily punished - even leading to death. Yet, Dazai borrowed the stage from Shakespearean England, the same way the Bard borrowed Danish and Polish battlefields to mask social critique and rebellion.
Ophelia and Gertrude are especially interesting characters, given that I was scared to read Dazai's interpretation of women... Shakespeare's Ophelia, victim to the patriarchal stripping of her autonomy, is almost a completely different character in Dazai's. He not only gives her autonomy and fierce grit, but operates as a voice of reason and stability to foil against Hamlet's Dazai-flavoured mental spiral. But, as like in all Dazai's work, the character who seems to be the most mentally troubled, ends up being the one whom we seem to connect to and understand the most. In that way, Ophelia, and any voices of reason, seem unreachable.
This took almost a year to translate and read, but I never regretted the task. Dazai's use of the original text continues to prove the extent of Shakespeare's ability to resonate with audiences beyond his own. Any familiar readers of Dazai could read moments in his Hamlet's monologues and point with a sigh, saying, "He's not even pretending to be Hamlet at this point. This is just 人間失格." The kabuki-styled moments and phrases created a drama that really highlighted both old and original moments to convey Dazai's social criticisms and personal worries.
Big-time fans of the original Hamlet will still be surprised at the plot changes, and new interpretations of characters. There are plentiful parallels both within Dazai's text, and across his translation to Shakespeare's.
One of the editor's notes explains that Dazai was writing under a time where public criticism against the Japanese monarch, and anti-war sentiment were heavily punished - even leading to death. Yet, Dazai borrowed the stage from Shakespearean England, the same way the Bard borrowed Danish and Polish battlefields to mask social critique and rebellion.
Ophelia and Gertrude are especially interesting characters, given that I was scared to read Dazai's interpretation of women... Shakespeare's Ophelia, victim to the patriarchal stripping of her autonomy, is almost a completely different character in Dazai's. He not only gives her autonomy and fierce grit, but operates as a voice of reason and stability to foil against Hamlet's Dazai-flavoured mental spiral. But, as like in all Dazai's work, the character who seems to be the most mentally troubled, ends up being the one whom we seem to connect to and understand the most. In that way, Ophelia, and any voices of reason, seem unreachable.
Displaying 1 of 1 review