I’m an early-intermediate student, and I was looking to find some reading material to practise with, but most of the resources which are available to me, or which have been suggested to me, are things like anime, manga, and light novels, which I have little interest in.
What does interest me is “high” literature: authors such as Sōseki Natsume, Kōbō Abe, Osamu Dazai. However, their novels are obviously quite beyond my reach at the moment, so I was wondering if some of these classic authors hadn’t written either works aimed at a younger audience, or somewhat easier novels that might still fall within my interests, but also land within my capabilities. I’m looking for the Japanese equivalent of *The Little Prince* or *The Hobbit*, if you will.
4 comments
It may not be as “literary” as you’d like, but not all light novels are anime or manga – Even things like Syosetu has plenty of free novels including historical ones and sci-fi ones. You might find something you really like. [https://syosetu.com/](https://syosetu.com/)
Kenji Miyazawa’s works might fit the bill for you!
Since you mentioned Dazai, IMHO 女生徒 is not that difficult.
I will leave you a few links with recommendations because I feel there are several ways for you to start reading more in Japanese and it basically comes down to what you personally think will work best for you:
* There are graded readers with vocabulary and grammar chosen specifically for intermediate level learners that introduce classic Japanese literature. I can recommend the free projects [Easy Japanese Literature](https://www.mgu.ac.jp/departments/jl/yasashii_nihongo/) and [Sakura Tadoku Lab](https://jgrpg-sakura.com/library/). I also read many of the level 4 stories of Nihongo Tadoku Books and Reberu-betsu Nihongo Tadoku Library and they had great easy adaptations of classic Japanese literature. If they are available for you, I can absolutely recommend them.
* Besides graded readers, parallel readers could be just the right thing to start with. They have both English and Japanese on a double page spread to help with comprehension and the titles “Breaking Into Japanese Literature” and “Exploring Japanese Literature” also have further annotations. I wouldn’t recommend these if you are completely new to reading in Japanese but maybe you like a challenge.
* Furthermore, since you mentioned “the Japanese equivalent of The Little Prince”, there absolutely is a nice Japanese version of the Little Prince in Japanese that has 100% furigana on all kanji. If that could be your thing, [have a look here for more furigana books](https://dokushoclub.com/2022/05/15/books-with-furigana/).
* and finally: Since you seem to be a bit unfamiliar with what is commonly read in Japan, I will link you [my personal favourites of all novels I read last year in Japanese](https://dokushoclub.com/2022/12/27/top-japanese-books-of-2022-my-highlights/).
Hope you find something good to get started with!