The Story of a Lonely Woman's Romantic Adventures

The prose writer and poet Ihara Saikaku, known for his improvisational talent and nicknamed the "master of twenty thousand verses," became the founder of a whole genre in Japanese prose – ukiyo-zōshi, tales of the fleeting world. But first and foremost, he became famous for works in the genre of koi-shū mono, love stories, the most famous of which is considered to be "The Story of a Lonely Woman's Romantic Adventures." Before you is a sincere and poignant confession of an old hermit woman, who lives alone in a clean hut high in the mountains. Meeting two young men, the old woman tells them the story of her life, which was full of passions and pleasures. This edition also includes the collection "Five Women Who Surrendered to Love" – five stories about women who, listening to their hearts, disregarded the laws of family life and moral norms.