Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan by Christopher Benfey ISBN: 0-375-50327-7 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Swept away
Comment: This is an excellent book on what Japan meant for the people who visited in the early days of the Meiji period. The author concentrates on a series of vignettes to explore the significance of Japanese culture in the lives of some of the leading US citizens of the period. It was not all just collections of fans and diets of raw fish. Some of these early travlers used a trip to Japan to acquire ancient artifacts (many of which are in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts), Henry Adams went on quest for nirvana, the artist John La Farge went with him and absorbed new artistic techniques that marked his subsequent work. The cast of characters also includes Isabelle Stewart Gardner and Theodore Roosevelt.
This is a very interesting book, sure to delight the reader who really wants to know what happens when west meets east.
Rating: 2
Summary: Informative but boring
Comment: I had great hope for this book -- what promise! Tying together "gilded age misfits, Japanese eccentrics." The first chapter on John Manjiro and Melville has great narrative power, unfortunately the rest of the book falls into a poor mix of ties between New Englanders and the Japanese. One of my big problems with the book is that the Japanese presence is hardly felt -- instead we have long, winding chapters on Henry Adams, Percival Lowell, Mabel Todd, etc. (interesting people in their own right) but whose ties to Japan don't have the sustaining narrative power as those like Melville or Manjiro.
Mr. Benfey's book is definitely informative. I found his list of sources and quotations to be appetizing -- yet I could barely force myself to finish the book. Its focus is more on what the New Englanders, ok white Americans, came away with from Japan even if it was the boiled down crack of Okukura's "Book of Tea" or Nitobe Inazo's "Bushido." Thank god Okakura existed -- otherwise, Mr. Benfey would have not had any glue to keep his American characters in this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: "To open Japan culturally meant to open themselves in turn."
Comment: The Meiji emperor's opening of Japan to trade in 1868 led to a relentless wave of Yankee artists, writers, and scientists who gravitated to Japan for the peaceful and beautiful alternatives it offered in the aftermath of America's Civil War. A coarse, business- and trade-centered culture of commercialism was replacing what they saw as America's old values as the country rebuilt, and they sought solace and inspiration in a completely different, aesthetic world. In this story of the remarkable interactions of Japanese and American intellectuals from 1868 - 1913, Benfey shows how the two cultures viewed each other, learned from each other, and influenced each other's future, focusing on the literary, artistic, and aesthetic legacy, rather than on the hard political realities.
Like a wave spreading outward in concentric circles, the intellectuals of New England radiated their enthusiasm for Japan and its traditions. The American travelers knew each other, learned from each other, and influenced each other. Edward Sylvester Morse of Salem, Massachusetts, was one of the first to make a life commitment to Japan, attracting in his wake Isabella Stewart Gardner, William Sturgis Bigelow, Percival Lowell, and artist Ernest Fenollosa. Isabella Stewart Gardner, in turn, introduced T.S. Eliot, Edith Wharton, and Henry and William James to Japanese art and thought, while historian Henry Adams and painter John La Farge attracted William Morris Hunt, architects H. H. Richardson and Frank Lloyd Wright, and others. Kakuzo Okakura, journeying to the U.S., had similar influence.
Benfey brings American and Japanese cultural history to life, creating real people with real emotions, problems, and commitments. His insight into the creative process adds verisimilitude to his portraits, and his ability to describe and evoke moods, whether they be in his recreation of samurai life or his depiction of a tired climber's first glimpse of Mt. Fuji, give a liveliness to the prose usually more characteristic of fiction than non-fiction. His nature imagery is so vibrant that the reader experiences journeys to the countryside alongside the participants.
In an Epilogue, which focuses on the year 1913, Benfey ties up the loose ends and finishes the stories of the characters on whom he has focused. His limited time frame has allowed him to explore America's influence on Japan in great detail, along with the "Japanese phenomenon" in this country, bringing to life the individuals who were responsible for it and illustrating the long-term effects. The book is a thoughtful and lively account of one of the most important cultural exchanges in history, and Benfey makes it both understandable and exciting. Mary Whipple
 |
Title: Inventing Japan, 1853-1964 (Modern Library Chronicles) by Ian Buruma ISBN: 0679640851 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan by Donald Keene ISBN: 0231130562 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal by Zachary Karabell ISBN: 0375408835 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 20 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
 |
Title: Japan Unbound: A Volatile Nation's Quest for Pride and Purpose by John Nathan ISBN: 0618138943 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
 |
Title: Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened the East by Giles Milton ISBN: 0374253854 Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Pub. Date: 18 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
