This collection includes both the historical stories and novellas that brought Akutagawa worldwide fame and are automatically associated with his name (including the legendary 'In the Thicket,' which served as the basis for the screenplay for Kurosawa's immortal film 'Rashomon'), as well as stories less well known to Western readers but even more revered in the author's homeland. These stories are set against the backdrop of the author's contemporary reality of early 20th-century Japan, which still retained many features of its national identity but was rapidly and greedily 'Europeanizing.' Worthy of special mention are the constant reminiscences in Akutagawa's work of classical Russian literature, which he admired immensely and in which, along with his native history, he found an inexhaustible source of inspiration.