Mitford's Japan: Memories and Recollections, 1866-1906, Revised Edition edited by Hugh Cortazzi
English | August 29, 2002 | ISBN: 1903350077 | True EPUB/PDF | 338 pages | 2.6/14 MB
English | August 29, 2002 | ISBN: 1903350077 | True EPUB/PDF | 338 pages | 2.6/14 MB
As the preface to this new edition points out, Mitford (Algernon Bertram, the first Lord Redesdale) was a gifted writer whose descriptions of Japan, during the critical time of transition from a feudal to a modern state in the late nineteenth century, are a testimony to his narrative skills, accuracy and objective reporting - qualities which are sometimes overshadowed by the higher profile given to his contemporary Ernest Satow.
Accordingly, this new edition, which makes the Mitford memoirs available to a much wider audience, includes a wide selection of extracts from Mitford's bestselling Tales of Old Japan (1871) - what Mitford, according to Carmen Blacker, perceived as the essence of the Japanese spirit: 'heroic, ruthless, devotedly loyal, bloody and chivalrous'.