| House of the Sleeping Beauties | |
|---|---|
| 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 continuously visits the House of the Sleeping Beauties in hopes of something more.
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.
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