Sanshiro

Sanshiro leaves the sleepy countryside for the first time in his life to experience the fast-moving "real world" of Tokyo, its women, and the cool dark world of the Imperial University. To the timid, unsophisticated though not insensitive man, the new world and its people are at once exhilarating and frightening. The novel follows Sanshiro's shadowy, inarticulate pursuit of the bewitching Mineko. In the subtle tension between our appreciation of Soseki's lively humor and our awareness of Sanshiro's doomed innocence, the novel comes to light.