The Complete Works of World Literature (Sekai Bungaku Zenshū, 1927–1932) by Shinchōsha publishing house in the context of the history of Japanese book

The last years of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s are known as the “era of one-yen books” in the history of Japanese book printing. One-yen books were serial subscription publications, with the price of one yen per volume. The first such publication was the Complete Works of Contemporary Japanese Literature (Kindai Nihon Bungaku Zenshū), launched by Kaizōsha publishing house in 1926. The series was very successful with at least 250,000 subscribers. The “one-yen editions race” was initiated: many publishing houses began releasing their own one-yen series as early as the following year. The most commercially successful among the one-yen books (at least 400,000 copies) was the Complete Works of World Literature (Sekai bungaku zenshū) published by the Shinchōsha publishing house in 1927–1932.

The Complete Works of World Literature consists of 57 volumes in two parts (38 volumes of the first part were published in 1927–1930, and then more 19 volumes were added, composing the second part of the publication). The books of the series had a hard cover and a thought-out design and were supposed to serve not only for reading, but also for the decoration of the house and the demonstration of the owner’s status.

The series represents one of the possible canons of world literature. The time frame of the presented works is from the 14th century (the first volume is Dante’s Divine comedy) to the present (the last volume contains six works, five of them written in the 1920s, while the volume was released in 1929). The series includes prose, drama, and, to a lesser extent, poetry. The volumes of the series have a fairly extensive apparatus (prefaces, comments in some volumes, portraits of authors, monthly attachments tucked into the pages of the volumes). World literature is presented as Western literature. Translations of the works of Western literature played an important role in the formation of national Japanese literature. The success of this series also demonstrated the readers’ great interest in literary translations, especially in the translations of modern literature.

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