Paulownia: Seven Stories from Contemporary Japanese Writers: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Paulownia: Seven Stories from Contemporary Japanese Writers, credited to Ōgai Mori; Tōson Shimazaki; Kafū Nagai; Torao Taketomo, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Paulownia: Seven Stories from Contemporary Japanese Writers by Ōgai Mori; Tōson Shimazaki; Kafū Nagai. (Translated by Torao Taketomo.) Read in English by Availle. Paulownia is a collection of seven stories by three Japanese authors from the late 19th and early 20th century. Mori Ōgai (1862 - 1922) was an army surgeon who was sent to study in Germany, where he developed an interest in Western literature. His most famous work is The Wild Geese (Gan). This collection contains his short stories Takase Bune, Hanako, and The Pier. Nagai Kafū (1879 - 1959) writings center mostly around the entertainment districts of Tokyo with their geisha and prostitutes. Here, his stories The bill-collecting and Ukiyo-e are presented. Shimazaki Tōson (1872 - 1943) was one of the representatives of Japanese naturalism, which we can see in his stories A Domestic Animal and Tsugaru Strait. Taketomo Torao (1891 - 1954), the editor and translator of this volume, translated many Western works into Japanese, for example the Rubayat, the Divine Comedy, and works by Shakespeare. He was also a writer in his own right. (Summary by Availle)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Paulownia: Seven Stories from Contemporary Japanese Writers
• Author credits: Ōgai Mori; Tōson Shimazaki; Kafū Nagai; Torao Taketomo
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 8
• Listed recording duration: 2:25:53

Catalogue topics

• Japan
• Japanese literature
• early 20th century

Track guide

1. 00 - Foreword and Introduction — 13:23
2. 01 - Takase bune by Mori Ōgai — 26:20
3. 02 - Hanako by Mori Ōgai — 14:54
4. 03 - The pier by Mori Ōgai — 12:16
5. 04 - The bill-collecting by Nagai Kafū — 27:23
6. 05 - Ukiyoe by Nagai Kafū — 9:28
7. 06 - A domestic animal by Shimazaki Tōson — 14:18
8. 07 - Tsugaru Strait by Shimazaki Tōson — 27:51

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.