Beauty and Sadness is a 1964 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata

was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...

. Opening on the train to Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

, the novel in characteristic Kawabata fashion subtly brings up issues of tradition vs. modernity as it explores Oki Toshio's, a Japanese writer, reunion with a young lover from his past, Otoko Ueno, who is now an artist and recluse. Ueno is now living with her protegee and lover, Keiko Sakami, and the unfolding relationship between Oki, Otoko, and Keiko form the plot of the slowly, delicately unfolding novel.

Film adaptation

The novel was made into films by Masahiro Shinoda

Masahiro Shinoda

is a Japanese film director, originally associated with the Shochiku Studio, who came to prominence as part of the Japanese New Wave in the 1960s.-Career:...

 (Utsukushisa to kanashimi to, released 1965) and by Joy Fleury, starring Charlotte Rampling

Charlotte Rampling

Charlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...

(Tristesse et beauté, released 1985).