Read this when
The Dancing Girl (Maihime)
He let his friend break the news so he wouldn't have to. 130 years later, Maihime still reads like a ghosting confession. 🚢
Who it's for
The story is told as Toyotarō's guilty confession on the voyage home, so readers carrying guilt about ending a relationship badly get an uncomfortably precise mirror of self-justification and regret.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Mori Ōgai's 1890 debut short story, drawn from his own years as a medical student in Germany, is narrated in the first person by Ōta Toyotarō, a gifted Japanese student in Berlin. He falls in love with Elise, a poor young German dancer, and tutors her, but pressure from his friend Aizawa and an influential count pushes him to choose between her and his career in Japan.
Where to find it
The Japanese original is public domain and free online (Aozora Bunko). English: Richard Bowring's translation is reprinted in anthologies such as Youth and Other Stories (ed. J. Thomas Rimer, Universi.
Before you start
Heads up: Implied sexual exploitation and abandonment.
Age: Ages 14+
No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
