The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales
Vasily Eroshenko was one of the most remarkable transnational literary figures of the early twentieth century: a blind multilingual Esperantist from Ukraine who joined left-wing circles in Japan and befriended the famous modernist writer Lu Xun in China. Born in a small Ukrainian village in imperial Russia, he was blinded at a young age by complications from measles. Seeking to escape the limitations imposed on the blind, Eroshenko became a globe-trotting storyteller. He was well known in Japan and China as a social activist and a popular writer of political fairy tales that drew comparisons to Hans Christian Andersen and Oscar Wilde.
The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales presents a selection of Eroshenko's stories, translated from Japanese and Esperanto, to English readers for the first time. These fables tell the stories of a religiously disillusioned fish, a jealous paper lantern, a scholarly young mouse, a captive tiger who seeks to liberate his fellow animals, and many more. They are at once inventive and politically charged experiments with the fairy tale genre and charming, lyrical stories that will captivate readers as much today as they did during Eroshenko's lifetime. In addition to eighteen fairy tales, the book includes semiautobiographical writings and prose poems that vividly evoke Eroshenko's life and world.Earn by promoting books
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Vasily Eroshenko (1890-1952) was a blind writer, translator, activist, and teacher who led an extraordinarily global life. After studying in Moscow and London, Eroshenko traveled to Japan, where he found fame for his fairy tales and public speaking. Deported from Japan in 1921 for his connections to political activists, Eroshenko moved to China, where well-known writers like Lu Xun were translating his stories to wide acclaim. The final decades of his life were spent in the Soviet Union under Stalin, and he died in obscurity.
Adam Kuplowsky is a translator based in Toronto. Jack Zipes is a professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota.The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales is a marvel in every sense of the word. Adam Kuplowsky's translation is a masterful homage to a storyteller whose own journey holds all of the hope and despair the best fairy tales contain. Read this book!
--Amanda Leduc, author of Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making SpaceKuplowsky's remarkable translation unearths the long-buried treasure of the fairy tales by Vasily Eroshenko whose life and oeuvre not only bridge many cultures and peoples across Eurasia, but also awake our humanity to the light of hope through his multilingual account as a blind poet and storyteller. This indispensable collection deserves attention from any serious reader.--Juwen Zhang, editor of The Dragon Daughter and Other Lin Lan Fairy Tales
[Eroshenko] has a childish yet pure and beautiful heart, and the boundaries of this world cannot limit his imagination.... Upon reading him, I felt grateful that mankind has been gifted such a work by a person who has yet to lose his childlike heart.--Lu Xun
This blind Ukrainian Esperantist captivated readers as he lived and travelled solo across Asia. He wrote nonimperial translingual tales as his medium of transnational communication in an imperial world. Eroshenko's modern fairy tales finally reach English-language readers in Kuplowsky's skilful translations and insightful introduction.--Sho Konishi, University of Oxford
[Eroshenko's stories] are desperate cries for help by a writer who wants us to understand what we are doing to ourselves, and how we are destroying the world, when we could be cultivating more just and joyous ways of living.--from the foreword by Jack Zipes
Eroshenko's fairy tales are by turns quaint and heartbreaking, engrossing and thought-provoking. Their evergreen messages--pertaining to equality, political freedom, and the humane treatment of animals--feel as fresh and relevant now as they were a century ago.--Eileen Gonzalez "Foreword Reviews, starred review"
A treasure trove of inventive and sometimes subversive fables that transcend borders.--Lisa Wallin "Tokyo Weekender"
Like the best fairy tales do, Eroshenko's mostly have a timeless quality - with some now seeming particularly relevant[.]--M. A. Orthofer "Complete Review"
[A] lovely mix of modern fairy tales and non-fiction . . . there's excellent work here by Kuplowsky, too, both for his light touch with the stories, and for the engrossing introduction.--Tony Malone "Tony's Reading List"
These tales are never dull or dusty; each story is a little gem in its own right, a pleasure to read and often very moving.--Karen Langley "Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings"
This collection is not only a vital collation of Eroshenko's moral and political work, but also a representation of the translator's labor, and what enhancements can result from this dedicated work.--Ian Ross Singleton "Asymptote"
[Eroshenko's] tales share the basics of fairy tales we find from around the world in passing along moral and cultural values, and working as entertainment and often humorously so. But his tales often challenge many of those values and reflect his assessments of power, class structures, and social injustices resulting from colonial oppression, white supremacy, and misogyny . . . Among the many questions he asks, one dominates: how can we be free?--Rick Henry "Asian Review of Books"
Do you enjoy your fairy tales politically charged and subversive? The stories contained in this book of Vasily Eroshenko's writings often check both boxes.--Tobias Carroll "Words Without Borders"
The pieces are spry and amusing . . . Eroshenko offers a soaring vision of transcendence, but it requires throwing off the shackles of civilization itself.--Sam Sacks "Wall Street Journal"
Eroshenko's eventful life serves as a key to understanding his fiction, but his inventive stories by themselves can unlock the mind and spirit.--James Crossely "Madison Books"
The kind of collection that can be read over and over. It is a wonderful complement to traditional fairy tales. Highly recommend to all who are interested in the power and beauty of storytelling!--Kelly Jarvis "The Fairy Tale Magazine"
