The House of the Sleeping Beauties

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House of the Sleeping Beauties  
Cover
Author(s) Yasunari Kawabata
Original title 眠れる美女
Nemureru Bijo'
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Genre(s) Novella
Publication date 1961

House of the Sleeping Beauties is a 1961 novella by the Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata.[1] A story about a lonely man, Old Eguchi, who continuously visits the House of the Sleeping Beauties in hopes of something more.

[edit] Plot

The titular house is a brothel where old men pay to sleep besides young girls that had been narcotized and happen to be naked, the sleeping beauties. The old men are expected to take sleeping pills and share the bed for a whole night with a girl without attempting anything of "bad taste" like "putting a finger inside their mouths". Eguchi is presented with a different girl each time he visits the house because of the short notice of his visits. He discovers that all girls are virgins which somehow compels him to comply with the house rules. Each girl is different and the descriptions of his actions are mixed with the dreams that he has sleeping besides the girls.

[edit] Uncredited Film Adaptation

The Australian film Sleeping Beauty (2011 film), directed by Julia Leigh, uses the central premise of House Of The Sleeping Beauties as its main plotline. While neither IMDB [2] nor the film's end-titles credit Kawabata's short story, it has been noted by at least one reviewer[3]. The film contains a scene in which a university lecturer is presenting on a game of Go (game), a reference to Kawabata's 1951 novel The Master of Go.

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