The Poppy

Meiji-era Tokyo. Brilliant and beautiful, Fujio is determined, together with her mother, to direct both her marriage and her family's future on her own terms. The young people around her are drawn to her vivid self-possession even as each carries private pride and uncertainty. Ono, an aspiring scholar, is captivated by Fujio but cannot escape an old promise and debt of gratitude to Sayoko, his former teacher's daughter. The forthright Munechika, introspective Kōno; and quietly observant Itoko add their own hopes to a courtship entangled with family standing, property, education, and obligation. Beneath polished conversation and impeccable manners, vanity and conscience contend with the desire for freedom and responsibility to others. As each person tries to believe in the justice of a chosen course, their relationships tighten into a knot and a darker tension enters the glittering social scene. First published in 1907, The Poppy is one of Natsume Soseki's major early novels. Through symbolic prose, psychological insight, and sharp social comedy, it portrays the disturbances that Meiji modernity brought to private desire and moral life.