Tales grotesque and curious

A little about the story

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s stories move through worlds in which an apparently simple incident can expose an uncomfortable truth about pride, fear, compassion, or self-interest. A conspicuous physical feature, an encounter at a ruined gate, or an unexpected opportunity for rescue becomes the center of a sharply concentrated narrative. The collection changes its atmosphere from tale to tale, passing between historical settings, modern observation, satire, and the unsettling possibilities of the fantastic.

These stories reward attention to the position from which an event is being described. Characters explain themselves, spectators draw conclusions, and familiar moral categories become less secure when circumstances put them under pressure. Akutagawa’s brevity gives particular weight to a selected gesture or image, while the variety of the collection prevents one mood from defining the whole. This English-language volume also introduces a second presence: translator Glenn W. Shaw, whose selection and introductory material offer an early route into the author’s work for readers encountering it outside Japanese. Each piece can be read independently, then reconsidered alongside the others.

Things You May Not Know About Tales grotesque and curious

• Eleven stories in translation. The volume contains eleven stories, including The Nose, Rashomon, The Spider’s Thread, The Ball, and Mori Sensei among its varied selections.
• Glenn W. Shaw translated it. Shaw receives the translation credit and supplies introductory material, making this a particular English selection rather than Akutagawa’s complete short fiction.
• A 1930 first edition. The source edition records first publication in July 1930 and a second edition in June 1938, issued by the Hokuseido Press.
• A devil opens the collection. Tobacco and the Devil begins the volume with an invented tale connecting tobacco’s arrival in Japan to a mischievous supernatural presence.
• Rashomon appears as a short story. The contents include Akutagawa’s original Rashomon story, which can be read on its own terms rather than through expectations created by later film associations.