If
there be any deserving merits in the following pages the credit is due
to the original. Any fault found in its interpretation or in the English
version, the whole responsibility is on the translator.
For the benefit of those who may not know the original, it must be
stated that "Botchan" by the late Mr. K. Natsume was an epoch-making
piece of work. On its first appearance, Mr. Natsume's place and name as
the foremost in the new literary school were firmly established. He had
written many other novels of more serious intent, of heavier thoughts
and of more enduring merits, but it was this "Botchan" that secured him
the lasting fame. Its quaint style, dash and vigor in its narration
appealed to the public who had become somewhat tired of the stereotyped
sort of manner with which all stories had come to be handled.
In its simplest understanding, "Botchan" may be taken as an episode in
the life of a son born in Tokyo, hot-blooded, simple-hearted, pure as
crystal and sturdy as a towering rock, honest and straight to a fault,
intolerant of the least injustice and a volunteer ever ready to champion
what he considers right and good. Children may read it as a "story of
man who tried to be honest." It is a light, amusing and, at the name
time, instructive story, with no tangle of love affairs, no scheme of
blood-curdling scenes or nothing startling or sensational in the plot or
characters.
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