World within walls: Japanese literature of the pre-modern era, 1600-1867

World Within Walls is the first of a projected four-volume study of Japanese literature, Donald Keene's major work, indeed an achievement probably beyond any other Western author. It covers the middle period when Japanese literature began to reach a popular public, as opposed to the elite aristocratic audience it had known previously. The book is broken into the two main divisions of the so-called "pre-modern" era, from 1600 to 1770, and 1770 to 1867, with poetry, fiction, and drama treated comprehensively and individually for each part. While a work of impeccable scholarship, it is written with the layman in mind, so that no preknowledge of Japanese history or literature is required to understand and appreciate Professor Keene's narrative and textual examinations. It will be recognized as the definitive work on its subject, to stand without rival for generations of readers.
Donald Keene is considered the foremost authority on Japanese literature. He has served as a translator and interpreter in the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School, was an Assistant Lecturer in Japanese at Cambridge, and is now Professor of Japanese at Columbia University. In 1974 he received the Order of the Rising Sun for his services to Japanese literature.