Seeds in the Heart

Rating:
Summary: A work of genius
Review: Keene has written a book that, though using an immense range of Japanese scholarly sources, is easily accessible to the interested reader.
His narrative style is clear and appealing.
He not only describes the Japanese classical literary canon, and quotes large chunks of it, but also evaluates the poetry and prose he treats with a careful and cultivated aesthetic sensibility.
The book is a delight to read.
Nothing like it exists on Japanese literature in the English language.

Konishi Jin'ichi's literary history is designed for specialists, and Kato Shuichi's similar 3-volume history does not have the depth and breadth of Keene's book with its characteristic attention to detail as Kato wrote his study mainly with Japanese readers in mind.
In short, 'Seeds in The Heart" is the culmination of a lifetime's scholarship, and provides an extraordinarily moving feast for readers

Rating:
Summary: A general history that sometimes runs astray
Review: Of the few books on Japanese literary history available in English, this volume is perhaps the best available. So much so that it inspired a widely acclaimed Japanese translation. However, the majority of the ideas presented keep within excepted standards, and when Keene's insight starts to become apparent the subject changes before a thorough explanation is given, even in places where such an explanation would be considered neccisary. This, however, is the only weak point of this book, although it is a major drawback.