The maids
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Contributors
Cronin, Michael P., translator.
Published
New York : New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2017.
Status

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LocationCall NumberStatus
Main Library - Adult FictionFiction TanizakChecked Out

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Published
New York : New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2017.
Format
Book
Physical Desc
176 pages ; 21 cm.
Language
English

Notes

General Note
A New Directions book.
General Note
"Published by arrangement with Chuokoron-Shinsha and the Wylie Agency"--Title page verso.
Description
"The Maids is a jewel: an astonishing complement to The Makioka Sisters, set in the same house, in the same turbulent decades, but among the servants as much as the masters. The Maids concerns all the young women who work -- before, during, and after WWII -- in the pampered, elegant household of the famous author Chikura Raikichi, his wife Sanko, and her younger sister. Though quite well-to-do, Raikichi has a small house: the family and the maids (usually a few, sharing a little room next to the kitchen) are on top of one another. This proximity helps to explain Raikichi's extremely close observation of the maids and their daily lives, although his interest carries with it more than a dash of the erotic, calling to mind Tanizaki's raciest books such as Diary of a Mad Old Man and The Key. In the sensualist, semi-innocent, sexist patrician Raikichi, Tanizaki offers a richly ironic self-portrait, but he presents as well a moving, nuanced chronicle of change and loss: centuries-old values and manners are vanishing, and here -- in the evanescent beauty of the small gestures and intricacies of private life -- we find a whole world to be mourned. And yet, there is such vivacity and such beauty of writing that Tanizaki creates an intensely compelling epic in a kitchen full of lively girls. Ethereally suggestive, sensational yet serious, witty but psychologically complex, The Maids is in many ways The Makioka Sisters revisited in a lighter, more comic mode"--,Provided by publisher.
Language
Published as Daidokoro taiheiki in Japanese (Tōkyō : Chūō Kōron Shinsha, 1974)

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Tanizaki, J., & Cronin, M. P. (2017). The maids (First edition.). New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō, 1886-1965 and Michael P., Cronin. 2017. The Maids. New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō, 1886-1965 and Michael P., Cronin. The Maids New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2017.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō, and Michael P. Cronin. The Maids First edition., New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2017.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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