Author of The Makioka Sisters, In Praise of Shadows, and A Cat, a Man, and Two Women, Junichiro Tanizaki (1886–1965) is arguably the greatest Japanese writer of the twentieth century. Michael P. Cronin is assistant professor of Japanese at the College of William and Mary.

"The Maids is altogether lighter, freer, and more playful than The Makioka Sisters—a busily peopled and remarkably sensual group portrait.  The short novel teems with life and has a flavor all its own, a joyful, comic, improvisational quality rupturing the elegiac tone announced in its opening pages.  It is no bad thing to be reminded from time to time that Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s remarkably fresh and intimate voice is speaking to us across a gulf of years and cultures."

Author of The Makioka Sisters, In Praise of Shadows, and A Cat, a Man, and Two Women, Junichiro Tanizaki (1886–1965) is arguably the greatest Japanese writer of the twentieth century. Michael P. Cronin is assistant professor of Japanese at the College of William and Mary.

"The Maids is altogether lighter, freer, and more playful than The Makioka Sisters—a busily peopled and remarkably sensual group portrait.  The short novel teems with life and has a flavor all its own, a joyful, comic, improvisational quality rupturing the elegiac tone announced in its opening pages.  It is no bad thing to be reminded from time to time that Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s remarkably fresh and intimate voice is speaking to us across a gulf of years and cultures."

Author of The Makioka Sisters, In Praise of Shadows, and A Cat, a Man, and Two Women, Junichiro Tanizaki (1886–1965) is arguably the greatest Japanese writer of the twentieth century. Michael P. Cronin is assistant professor of Japanese at the College of William and Mary.

"The Maids is altogether lighter, freer, and more playful than The Makioka Sisters—a busily peopled and remarkably sensual group portrait.  The short novel teems with life and has a flavor all its own, a joyful, comic, improvisational quality rupturing the elegiac tone announced in its opening pages.  It is no bad thing to be reminded from time to time that Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s remarkably fresh and intimate voice is speaking to us across a gulf of years and cultures."