These chapters, for the most part, are reprinted from LafcadioHearn’s “Interpretations of Literature,” 1915,from his “Life and Literature,” 1916, and from his“Appreciations of Poetry,” 1917. Three chapters appearhere for the first time. They are all taken from the student notesof Hearn’s lectures at the University of Tokyo, 1896-1902,sufficiently described in the earlier volumes just mentioned. Theyare now published in this regrouping in response to a demand for afurther selection of the lectures, in a less expensive volume andwith emphasis upon those papers which illustrate Hearn’sextraordinary ability to interpret the exotic in life and inbooks.
It should be remembered that these lectures were delivered toJapanese students, and that Hearn’s purpose was not only toimpart the information about Western literature usually to be foundin our histories and text-books, but much more to explain to theOriental mind those peculiarities of our civilization which mightbe hard to understand on the further side of the Pacific Ocean. Thelectures are therefore unique, in that they are the first largeattempt by a Western critic to interpret us to the East. That weshall be deeply concerned in the near future to continue thisinterpretation on an even larger scale, no one of us doubts. Wewish we might hope for a