ISBN: 9780375406782

Memoirs of a Geisha is the sort of novel that novel-lovers yearn for, which is to say, so convincing that while reading it you become transported to another time, and other place, and fee… Plus…

Memoirs of a Geisha is the sort of novel that novel-lovers yearn for, which is to say, so convincing that while reading it you become transported to another time, and other place, and feel you're listening and seeing with someone else's eats and eyes.' - Margaret Forster Previously unavailable in hardback outside the USA, this remarkable novel has caught the imagination of millions of readers. It tells, as if in her own words, the extraordinary story of a geisha girl - a seductive and evocative epic on an intimate scale. Summoning up more than twenty-five years of Japan's dramatic history, the novel opens a window onto a half-hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation. Chiyo is born a fisherman's daughter in a village on the Sea of Japan, where she might have lived a drab and uneventful life - but for her startling grey eyes. In 1929, at the age of nine, she is sold into a kind of slavery as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. In the glamorous and decadent heart of Kyoto she discovers an alien world. This is the world where Hatsumomo, petite and deadly, is principal geisha; where Auntie, who looks like a knobbly bamboo pole, is kind but ineffectual; and pipe-smoking Mother controls them all like a repulsive spider from the center of her web. Chiyo learns to be careful in her words, her actions and her choice of friends. Through petty miseries, farcical moments, great pain and one man's act of kindness, she begins her transformation into Sayuri, one of the most sought-after geisha of the Gion district. Her good fortune is to be taken on as 'younger sister' and apprentice by a successful geisha who teaches her the arts of her profession -n not only dancing and singing, but how to drape the kimono, how to apply the elaborate make-up, how to walk and talk and pour tea, how to beguile the most powerful men. But then war breaks out and, to survive, Sayuri must transform herself once more. Finally she takes a calculated risk which could mean disgrace, or the realization of an impossible dream - the tenuous hope that has kept her spirit intact and aloof, even from drunken patrons and the auction of her much-prized virginity. Many years later, Sayuri tells her own story from the Walforf Astoria in New York, her tone controlled and ambivalent, funny and poignant, as she recaptures the exquisite scenes, behind the rice-paper screens, where young girls learn the age-old art of the geisha. Arthur Golden's remarkably poised and beautifully written first novel brings this strange, exotic existence to the page as never before. Memoir of the Geisha grips the reader from the very first and leaves the unforgettable imprint of one woman's life at another time and in another place. Digital Content>E-books>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Digital >16<

ISBN: 9780375406782

A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated ge… Plus…

A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction—at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and completely unforgettable. Digital Content>E-books>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Digital >16<

ISBN: 9780375406782

A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geis… Plus…

A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction—at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and completely unforgettable. Digital Content>E-books>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Digital >16<

ISBN: 9780375406782

This is a seductive and evocative epic on an intimate scale, which tells the extraordinary story of a geisha girl. Summoning up more than twenty years of Japan's most dramatic history, it… Plus…

This is a seductive and evocative epic on an intimate scale, which tells the extraordinary story of a geisha girl. Summoning up more than twenty years of Japan's most dramatic history, it uncovers a hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation. From a small fishing village in 1929, the tale moves to the glamorous and decadent heart of Kyoto in the 1930s, where a young peasant girl is sold as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. She tells her story many years later from the Waldorf Astoria in New York; it exquisitely evokes another culture, a different time and the details of an extraordinary way of life. It conjures up the perfection and the ugliness of life behind rice-paper screens, where young girls learn the arts of geisha - dancing and singing, how to wind the kimono, how to walk and pour tea, and how to beguile the most powerful men. Digital Content>E-books>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Digital >16<

1999, ISBN: 9780375406782

eBooks, eBook Download (EPUB), [PU: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group], Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1999