"The Ghostly Echo of a Koto," one of Natsume Sōseki's lesser-known stories, tells the tale of a narrator about to be married who is influenced by the superstitious old woman who looks after his house. She tells him of a curse that will endanger his fiancée's life if he doesn't leave her. In this novella, which culminates in a surprising denouement, ghostly episodes are superbly interwoven with others brimming with humor and everyday life.

"Natsume Sōseki is considered the foremost fiction writer of modern Japan. His complex psychological works, in which traditional Japanese ideals are combined with the form of the Western realist novel, have had a profound influence on subsequent Japanese writers. For anyone seriously interested in the development of Japanese literature, knowledge of Sōseki's novels is essential." —Ivan Morris, *The New York Times*