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Loading... Shōgun: The Complete Novel (original 1975; edition 2023)by James Clavell (Author)
Work InformationShōgun by James Clavell (1975)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. An amazing, sprawling story that never slows down. Filled with romance, drama, violence, and an intense sense of progression. The story is about a genius sailsman that gets into an accident, trying to get to Japan to kick out the Spanish and Portuguese catholic rule, with his ship and gets captured in the coasts of the country. Not only he's a genius as a pilot, but as a person. He's the only open mind, fair man of his crew, making him practically japanese by the end of the book, accepting his destiny and trying to make the best of it all. He's relationship with every secondary character are all interesting because they're very well developed. None of the situations are ever boring. The most interesting of them all is the warlord Toranaga, who crafts a beyond brilliant plan since the beginning of the book, influencing everything that happens to everybody, almost with no fail. Playing psychological games with the other warlords of the land, and our main character. Using his people deep sense of honor and duty and profound search for retribution to gain advantage. And in between all this are the small, human stories that move the plot along. Just incredible. How beautiful life is and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now. It was by luck that I came to read this book. I had a book club going at my workplace and this book was randomly picked after few others. The book club is no more, but this book I have finished and I am so happy that I did and happy that this book found its way into my life. One of the if not THE greatest reads of my life. Full of intrigue , tension, betrayal but also full of honour , beauty and the joy of life. I do not posses the words to describe the gravity of this book in few words and I don't want this to be too long. If you are on the edge about reading this please do yourself a favour and read it. I myself took way longer than average to read it, but in the end I am very happy that I took my time to savour it. Every day not reading I was thinking about the ideas this book explores and what loyalty, love, family , money and morality means to me. So many great questions. Masterpiece. This was a big DNF for me, about 250 pages in. What made it impossible for me to continue? Multiple POVs and internal monologues of all the characters who appear even briefly; plodding pacing; unsympathetic characters; characters that are introduced and later dropped completely (or so it seems 250 pages in), etc. Algo totalmente inesperado, un libro escrito por un extranjero sobre la epoca medieval de Japon? No tenia buena pinta pero... Este libro es increible. Cosas que encontraras en este libro: - Planes sobre planes sobre planes sobre planes. La lealtad de los subordinados, el espionaje generalizado, lo formal de los ritos, etc. Hace que los personajes puedan planear y calcular movimientos que sus rivales haran, pero estos saben eso por tanto pueden plantear otro plan basado en como contrarestaran, etc. - Todo el mundo tiene una agenda. En el libro te metes en la cabeza de al menos 10 personas distintas, cada una tiene sus planes sobre planes y a veces entran en conflictos, otras en alianzas con los demas personajes - Los personajes evolucionan, mas notorio es el protagonista, pero los demas por el contacto con el tambien. Este aspecto me recuerda a "The left hand of darkness". - Romance - Accion y suspense. Nunca sabes que va a pasar por lo de arriba, cada actor puede sorprenderte con su nuevo plan, recuerdo cuando me quedarian 150 paginas o asi y pensaba en escribir este comentario que ocurrio algo que casi se me cae la barbilla al suelo, en serio? No me lo podia creer, pero cuando me quedaban 120 paginas ocurrio algo todavia mas rompedor, es todo asi. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesThe Asian Saga (1) Belongs to Publisher SeriesGoldmann (35618) Knaur Taschenbuch (653) Is contained inContainsHas the adaptationInspiredHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Fiction.
Literature.
Historical Fiction.
HTML: After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen-Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is seventeenth-century Japan, a land where the line between life and death is razor-thin, Blackthorne must negotiate not only a foreign people, with unknown customs and language, but also his own definitions of morality, truth, and freedom. As internal political strife and a clash of cultures lead to seemingly inevitable conflict, Blackthorne's loyalty and strength of character are tested by both passion and loss, and he is torn between two worlds that will each be forever changed. Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Shogun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the bestselling novels of all time but also one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, Shogun is, as the New York Times put it, "...not only something you read-you live it." Provocative, absorbing, and endlessly fascinating, there is only one: Shogun. .No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction 1900- 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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This is a romantic (in the old sense) view of history, not a factual one - though the '75 publication date (only decades after the very bitter end of the war in the pacific) makes it an impressively favourable telling of west meets east, for a western audience. ( )