House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories (Vintage International)

Yasunari Kawabata's 1961 novella, The House of Sleeping Beauties is perhaps the most refined of his own sui generis genre of esoteric erotica. An elderly man becomes a habitue of a house of very particular and distanced fetish: the girls he spends the night with are drugged into a deep sleep. They will never know him, and he will only know them at a physical remove, no aggressive or invasive physicality, yet invoking spiritual, esthetic, psychological proximity and intimacy. The madam of the house remarks that the men tend to have favorable dreams. Indeed, there are dreams, reminiscences, intuitions, meditations and the most refined frissons, the most revelatory acknowledgements of the complexity of human interrelation. "The temptation was still strong. This girl was the first of the 'sleeping beauties' who had shown him her tongue. The impulse toward a misdeed more exciting than putting his finger to her tongue flashed through him...Lying beside a girl who had been put to sleep was doubtless evil. The evil would become clearer were he to kill her. It would be easy to strangle her, or to cover her nose and mouth. She was asleep with her mouth open, showing her childlike tongue. It was a tongue that seemed likely to curl around his finger, were he to touch it like that of a babe at its mother's breast."This eponymously-titled volume also includes another famous Kawabata extended story, One Arm, a Kafka-esque assignation: a woman detaches her right arm to her gentleman and gives it to him, presumably for the night. The arm has its own voice, and they have their own extraordinary personal and dramatic dynamic."She had taken off the arm at the point I liked. It was plump and round--was it at the top of the arm or the beginning of the shoulder? The roundness was that of a beautiful Occidental girl, rare in a Japanese. It was in the girl herself, a clean, elegant roundness, like a sphere glowing with a faint, fresh light. ..Something that lasted for a brief moment in the life of a beautiful girl, the roundness of the arm made me feel the roundness of her body."A great collection, concluding with a story for all of us who prefer the company of animals to humans, Of Birds and Beasts.

This book is beautifully written, it describes the sentiment and state of mind of a 67 year old man, that considered himself at the end of his life. You cannot stop reading, it is human and through memories he recalls all his life and personal relations. It is a very different book, worth reading

Very good

A classic worth reading to gain an understanding of Japanese culture.

I enjoyed the writing style, poetic and eerie. But the overall creepiness kinda got to me. I knew what I would get going into this, but I couldn't read the whole thing myself, just the first story. I would, however recommenced the book if for no other reason to push your boundaries.

House of the Sleeping Beauties: And Other StoriesYasunari KawabataVery good Book. Enjoyed it a lot. Probably Inspired Gabriel Garcia's book: Memoria de mis putas tristes"

Bought it for the introduction by Mishima (I'm a die-hard Mishima fan), the story itself turned out to be my favorite among Kawabata's works.

Does what it's designed to do

I have never owned a book with a more beautiful cover, it is also textured making it super fun to hold while reading. In terms of the actual stores I wasnt a very big fan or the house of the sleeping beauties, I felt that it dragged on for way longer than necessary and while I found the concept to be fascinating I was very disappointed with the execution, I felt like it was trying to say something deep and meaningful but in the end I was left with nothing. However, the other two stories were gripping from start to finish, they were thought provoking, emotive and honestly two of my favourite short stories of all time.

A very strange yet compelling story of an old man's yearning for his lost youth. The erotic descriptions are excellently crafted.

These are the most beautiful and most moving stories I have ever read. You need to be an 'old man' to really appreciate them and understand and feeling and the tactileness of them - and prepared to weep

Zwei der drei Geschichten, die erste und die letzte haben mir ganz gut gefallen. Die zweite habe ich nur angefangen und dann übersprungen.