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´What is the life of a human being - a drop of dew, a flash of lightning? This is so sad, so sad.´

Autobiographical stories from one of Japan´s masters of modernist story-telling.

Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin´s 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927). Akutagawa´s Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories is also available in Penguin Classics.

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