The full text of this collection is now available online on Brother Anthony’s website. Charles Montgomery’s review provides the following information: “Ten of its 20 stories focus on “love and marriage,” and the rest are characterized as “social stories.” Most demonstrate a kind of depth and lack of didacticism that would soon almost vanish from … [Read More]
Booklist: Korean literature in translation (page 57)
Before Love Fades Away
No further information available. But I am surprised to find that, according to WorldCat, there is a copy in a public library within a mile or two of LKL Towers. [Read More]
Folk Tales from Korea
From the publisher’s website: Folk Tales from Korea is a fun way to access to the Korean ethos. Enjoy these folk tales handed down through the generations and you will gain a better understanding of the Korean people. You will most certainly recognize the Confucius influence on people’s lives. “These 99 examples are as various as they are enjoyable, some … [Read More]
Songs from Korea
Like the similar volume, Tales from Korea, this title was originally self-published (in 1936) and then republished on several occasions. For example the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has in its library a copy of the 1948 International Cultural Association of Korea edition. The Koreana Museum in Seoul has a copy of the 1936 edition … [Read More]
The Orchid Door
“Usually considered to be the first volume of Korean poetry in English translation ever published”: Brother Anthony gives the background to the printing of this set of translations of ancient Korean poems, a volume illustrated by Lilian Miller. As he explains, Grigsby reworked some literal translations by James Scarth Gale and others, “taking them into … [Read More]
Tales from Korea
According to Worthpoint, “17 editions [were] published between 1934 and 1963 in English”. WorldCat has the 1934 edition being self-published, with subsequent versions being published by a range of houses. Difficult to obtain nowadays, though Amazon US is currently listing a copy of the 1946 edition with a price reflecting its rarity. Copies are kept … [Read More]
The Cloud Dream of the Nine, a Korean Novel: A Story of the Times of the Tangs of China About 840 A.D
From the introduction (reproduced in WorldCat) The reader must lay aside all Western notions of morality if he would thoroughly enjoy this book. The scene of the amazing Cloud Dream of the Nine, the most moving romance of polygamy ever written, is laid about 849 A.D. in the period of the great Chinese dynasty of … [Read More]
Korean Folk Tales: Imps, Ghosts and Fairies
From James Scarth Gale’s preface: To any one who would like to look somewhat into the inner soul of the Oriental, and see the peculiar spiritual existences among which he lives, the following stories will serve as true interpreters, born as they are of the three great religions of the Far East, Taoism, Buddhism and … [Read More]