A Fantastic Journey: The Life and Literature of Lafcadio Hearn - Hardcover

Murray, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1873410239 ISBN 13: 9781873410233

Publisher: Japan Library, 1993

xvii 379p hardback, dustjacket in excellent condition, illustrated, a fresh copy, includes two neatly clipped articles realting to the text and a review pasted onto the front endpaper, a well preserved copy, in very good condition, first edition

From the Author:

A Summary of the Reviews
Reviews of A Fantastic Journey: The Life and Literature of Lafcadio Hearn

"A fascinating and scholarly study of the life and times of Patrick Lafcadio Hearn...the book....is already receiving widespread acclaim..." Evening Press, 14 December 1993

And he [Paul Murray] tells the story of Hearn with enough intelligence, fluidity and perception for it to rise to the challenge of moving beyond fact into metaphor... This awareness of Hearn’s significance as an interstitial figure, as a man who was never one thing nor the other, makes Murray’s exploration of his life and work an exemplary exercise in judgment." Fintan O’Toole, Catholic Herald, 31 December 1993

"Paul Murray...his turned his cultural diplomacy into a fascinating book about an unfairly neglected writer..." Murray Sayle, The Mail on Sunday, 2 January 1994

"This is a definitive work of scholarship on Hearn by an Irish diplomat who has lived in Japan, knows Japanese, and, importantly, has a strong feel for that odd and fascinating genre of nineteenth century writing, Irish-Victorian Gothic, into which he firmly, and rightly, places Hearn...The book serves the dual purpose of setting Patrick Lafcadio Hearn straight in his hitherto tangled context, and of making level assessments of Hearn’s place in the literature of the period. It is the first definitive study which will be the essential starting point of Hearn studies for many years to come." Richard Ryan, Irish Independent, 26 February 1994

"Paul Murray’s new book sets out to reinterpret Hearn in line with his findings. The result is less myth and more man...who felt "a need to constantly reinvent himself," and who in the end was able to "articulate his vision of a country whose language he never learned to speak but with whose culture he developed and extraordinary empathy."...This reinterpretation is valuable...[as is] the very sane evaluation of the Hearn here uncovered..." Donald Richie, The Japan Times, 25 January 1994.

"To its credit, Paul Murray’s biography does not try to ram home pretentious modern lessons from Hearn’s life. Instead, this is a straightforward account of Hearn’s multi- faceted story, by a biographer whose career as an Irish diplomat in New York and Tokyo parallels some of Hearn’s own travels. It is hard to pick up a biography that shows as much respect for its subject’s character as this one does... "One of Mr Murray’s important themes is that Hearn’s strange life helped make him free from prejudice in explaining Japan, by comparison with the zealous Christian missionaries and European-minded professors writing about the country at the time - and many commentators since...." William Dawkins, The Financial Times, 15 March 1994

"...Murray’s account of the writing is as astute as his account of the life, and he gives as much care to his consideration of the books as he gives to the complicated wranglings between Hearn and his publishers or to the intricacies of his relationship with Japan.... Paul Murray’s excellent biography teaches us what Yone Noguchi meant when he wrote of Hearn in 1910: "We Japanese have been regenerated by his sudden magic..."" Sean Dunne, The Irish Times, 5 February 1994

"Paul Murray tries to redress the imbalance [of portraying Hearn as a one-dimensional neurotic] by revealing a multifaceted character who gave the world some of the most enduring insights into Japan that have ever appeared." Geoffrey Murray, Intersect, July 1994.

"Paul Murray's exhaustively researched biography of the Victorian writer Lafcadio Hearn depicts a curiously contradictory man....During these years [1890-1904], Hearn wrote a series of works exploring Japanese culture, particularly its traditional folklore. Murray's clear, efficient book is an attempt to understand the mind behind these writings, specifically Hearn's interest in Japan's traditional, often supernatural tales passed from generation to generation. For Murray, Hearn's Japanese work is best understood in the context of his childhood and early career, which left a distinct impression, affecting his expectations of Japanese life. ...Murray exposes Hearn's preconceptions which lie behind his work about Japanese culture...I can think of no other book which retraces Hearn's steps in such depth and with such enthusiasm." John McLeod, Insight Japan, Vol 3, No 1, June 1994

"Murray is at his best when writing of the 14 Japanese years, during which Hearn immersed himself in a wholly alien tradition and eventually become one of the two or three greatest Western interpreters...Murray is no less good in his final chapter, on the events which followed Hearn’s death...Murray has...a striking number of insights..." Francis King, The Spectator, 1 January 1994

"A substantial study of a writer who excited much interest in America and elsewhere earlier in this century." Patrick Gallagher, Sunday Independent, 16 January 1994

"Paul Murray’s excellently researched biography...is most useful." Adrian Kenny, The Sunday Press, 26 December 1993

From the Back Cover:

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) has long been marginalised as a failed Victorian Romantic whose writings on Japan were poetic but inconsequential; as a person, he emerges as a one-dimensional neurotic. In this new study, based on a wealth of hitherto unpublished sources, as well as a fresh reading of Hearn's writings, Paul Murray reveals a multi-faceted character of considerable depth, intelligence and literary skill. This is a book, therefore, that will appeal on many levels. The story of Hearn's life makes fascinating reading; his fantastic journey took him from conception outside marriage on a Greek island to a protected upbringing in Dublin; from a Gothic education in England to Cincinnati in the United States where, as Paddy Hearn, he established himself as a journalist of the macabre par excellence. In New Orleans, in the 1860s, he transformed himself into Lafcadio Hearn, litterateur and a man of the South. Finally after two years in the West Indies, he spent the last fourteen years of his life in Japan - arriving in 'the land of the gods' in the spring of 1890. Although it was always to be an ambiguous relationship with his adopted country, Hearn gave to the world some of the most valuable and enduring insights into Japanese society and culture that continue to stand the test of time. For students of the Anglo-Irish tradition, a little explored strand of Hearn's heritage, this book is also essential reading, providing substantial insights into Hearn's mastery of the literary horror genre. Equally, students of Japan will want to understand, for the first time, the make-up and motivation of one of its greatest ever Western interpreters.

• Publisher: Japan Library
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1873410239
• ISBN 13: 9781873410233
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408