{"product_id":"the-gate-isbn-9781590175873","title":"The Gate","description":"An NYRB Classics Original\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA humble clerk and his loving wife scrape out a quiet existence on the margins of Tokyo. Resigned, following years of exile and misfortune, to the bitter consequences of having married without their families’ consent, and unable to have children of their own, Sōsuke and Oyone find the delicate equilibrium of their household upset by a new obligation to meet the educational expenses of Sōsuke’s brash younger brother. While an unlikely new friendship appears to offer a way out of this bind, it also soon threatens to dredge up a past that could once again force them to flee the capital. Desperate and torn, Sōsuke finally resolves to travel to a remote Zen mountain monastery to see if perhaps there, through meditation, he can find a way out of his predicament. \u003cbr\u003e       \u003cbr\u003eThis moving and deceptively simple story, a melancholy tale shot through with glimmers of joy, beauty, and gentle wit, is an understated masterpiece by one of Japan’s greatest writers. At the end of his life, Natsume Sōseki declared \u003ci\u003eThe Gate,\u003c\/i\u003e originally published in 1910, to be his favorite among all his novels. This new translation captures the oblique grace of the original while correcting numerous errors and omissions that marred the first English version.“I especially remember the strong sense of identification I  felt with \u003ci\u003eThe Gate\u003c\/i\u003e, the story of a young married couple living in far-from-ideal circumstances.” —Haruki Murakami\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Released in 1910, \u003ci\u003eThe Gate \u003c\/i\u003eis among top Japanese novelist Sōseki’s best-know works. A man suddenly abandons his loving wife to enter a life of contemplation in a Zen temple. He goes looking for answers but finds only more questions.” \u003ci\u003e—Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A sensitive, skillfully written novel by the most widely read Japanese author of modern times.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Soseki had a genius for sensitively depicting souls in torment.  The novel is about the marriage of Sosuke and Oyone….\u003ci\u003eThe Gate\u003c\/i\u003e beautifully shows the way their relationship is suffused with both love and remorse, constantly reminding them of their pain while also acting to soothe it.... \u003ci\u003eThe Gate\u003c\/i\u003e concludes with a poignant diminuendo, where Soseki takes leave of his couple with a scene of quiet and bittersweet domesticity. The sign of his greatness is that those last, longing notes sound as clearly now as when they were written.\" —Sam Sacks, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“An empathetic portrayal of character dovetailing with Nietzschean and Zen thought…[Soseki] never stopped being a hard-boiled intellectual with a mercilessly ironic vision — and he never stayed still.” —Damian Flanagan, \u003ci\u003eThe Japan Times \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Sōseki’s prose is so delicate that each page is like looking at a set of dreamy watercolors.’ —\u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Gate \u003c\/i\u003eis not so much tragic or comic as a graceful balance between the dispiriting and the humorous. It is surely the kind of writing we need. A masterpiece of taste and clarity.” \u003ci\u003e—New Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Gate \u003c\/i\u003eis almost devoid of dramatic incidents, but halting conversations of a quite ordinary husband and wife have a peculiar poignance because their love is the one abiding element in their lives. The descriptions of Sōseki’s house and its surroundings are as precise as in a Naturalist novel, and the atmosphere of almost featureless days is unfalteringly conveyed, but the novel never becomes boring, no doubt because of the excellence of the writing.” —Donald KeeneNastume Sōseki (1867–1916) was born the youngest of eight children during the last year of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, the city shortly to be renamed Tokyo, and became the defining writer of the Meiji period (1868–1912). Raised by foster parents until he was nine, he made a faltering start at school but soon displayed a special aptitude for Chinese studies and later for the English language, ultimately earning an advanced degree in English literature. As an\u003cbr\u003eundergraduate at Tokyo Imperial University, he published an essay on Walt Whitman that introduced the poet’s work to Japan. After teaching for several years, Sōseki was sent in 1900 to England for two years by the Ministry of Education. Upon his return he succeeded Lafcadio Hearn in the English department at Tokyo Imperial University. Sōseki published his first work of fiction in 1905, the opening chapter of what would become the famous satirical novel \u003ci\u003eI Am a Cat\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1907, offered a position with the Asahi Newspaper publishing company, he left teaching to become a full-time writer, and proceeded to produce novels at the rate of one a year until his\u003cbr\u003edeath from a stomach ulcer in 1916. Other major works to have appeared in English translation include \u003ci\u003eBotchan\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eKusamakura\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Miner\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eKokoro\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWilliam F. Sibley (1941–2009) was a professor of East Asian languages and civilizations at the University of Chicago. A translator of Japanese fiction and nonfiction, Sibley was at work on Sōseki’s First Trilogy, comprising \u003ci\u003eSanshirō\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAnd Then\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Gate\u003c\/i\u003e, at the time of his death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePico Iyer is the author of several books, including \u003ci\u003eVideo Night in Kathmandu\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Lady and the Monk\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Global Soul\u003c\/i\u003e, and, most recently, \u003ci\u003eThe Man Within My Head\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a frequent contributor to \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHarper’s\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in Japan.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302819418341,"sku":"NP9781590175873","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590175873.jpg?v=1767739473","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-gate-isbn-9781590175873","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}