Uno Koji, a literary figure of the first rank in twentieth-century Japan, was a maverick who defied literary conventions by combining the playfulness and stylistic verve of pre-Meiji literature with the often tortured self-reflection of modern fiction.

Elaine Gerbert's startlingly evocative and graceful translation is preceded by an interpretive introduction that places Uno's writing in critical perspective. Here at last is a translation that makes accessible for the first time in English two of the most representative works of this acute, eccentric, and always entertaining author,...