Name: Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings (Loa #190): Some Chinese Ghosts / Chita / Two Years in the French West Indies / Youma / Selected Journalism and Lett
SKU: 2083129
Price: 562.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Hearn, Lafcadio ; Benfey, Christopher
ISBN: 9781598530391

portada Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings (Loa #190): Some Chinese Ghosts / Chita / Two Years in the French West Indies / Youma / Selected Journalism and Lett

Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings (Loa #190): Some Chinese Ghosts / Chita / Two Years in the French West Indies / Youma / Selected Journalism and Lett

Type

Physical Book

Author

Lafcadio Hearn

Illustrated by

Christopher Benfey

Publisher

Library of America

Year

2009

Language

English

Pages

848

Format

Hardcover

Dimensions

20.6x13.1x3.7 cm

Weight

0.71 kg.

ISBN

1598530399

ISBN13

9781598530391

Edition No.

Synopsis "Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings (Loa #190): Some Chinese Ghosts / Chita / Two Years in the French West Indies / Youma / Selected Journalism and Lett"

Featuring a wide range of writings from Hearn's time in America, this collection is a stunning showcase of the Greek-Irish author's uniquely decadent literary flair and keen eye for observation A translator of Flaubert and Gautier, Lafcadio Hearn was the master of a gaudy and sometimes self-consciously decadent literary style, but he was also a tough-minded and keenly observant reporter, with an eye for the offbeat, the sensual, and occasionally the gruesome. The writings of his American years collected in this Library of America volume--on subjects as wide ranging as comparative folklore, the history of musical instruments, French literary avant-gardes, and New Orleans voodoo--reveal an omnivorous curiosity and an always eclectic sensibility. Some Chinese Ghosts (1887), a stylized retelling of ancient legends, foreshadows Hearn's later fascination with Asian themes. The exquisitely crafted novels Chita (1889), about the devastation wrought by a Louisiana hurricane, and Youma (1890), about a slave rebellion in Martinique, epitomize his writing at its most luxuriantly romantic, alert to the interactions of diverse cultures and suffused with imagistic splendor. His extraordinary travel book Two Years in the French West Indies (1890), presented here with the many illustrations from its first edition, provides a richly impressionistic account of his long stay on Martinique and other Caribbean islands. Also included are personal letters as well as more than a dozen examples of Hearn's journalism from the 1870s and 1880s, depicting vividly: a raucous African-American nightclub on the Cincinnati waterfront; an execution; scenes of Mardi Gras and the New Orleans French Quarter; an uncharted village of Filipino fishermen in a remote Louisiana bayou. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Lafcadio Hearn

(Author)

View Author's Page

(Greece 1850 - Japan 1904), born in Greece to an Irish father and Greek mother, he was raised between Greece and Ireland. At the age of nineteen, he moved to the United States to start his journalism career and later to Japan in 1890, where he would spend the rest of his life as a teacher and writer. He is noted for his narrative and descriptive talent both in his journalistic and literary work. He was one of the first Europeans to introduce Japanese culture to Western readers. His long stay in Japan, combined with his deep knowledge of Japanese culture and traditions and his poetic imagination and narrative style, have secured him a privileged place in the reading community and an even more privileged place in the hearts of the Japanese.

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