Novel
추월색
Not translated into English
Choe Chan-sik · 1912
Synopsis
Kim Yeong-chang and Yi Jeong-im, children of two neighbouring families, have been betrothed since childhood. When the boy's father is appointed magistrate at Chosan, a peasant uprising cuts off all contact; Jeong-im's parents want to marry her to another man, and she flees to Japan on the wedding day, learns the language there and completes her studies. Yeong-chang, saved by an English benefactor, studies in England and then makes his way to Japan. One evening, in Ueno Park, a rejected Korean student attacks Jeong-im with a knife; Yeong-chang intervenes, and it is he who is arrested.
Context
The novel was published in 1912 by Hoedong Seogwan and went through twenty-two editions up to 1935, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, which also lists its adaptations and imitations. The narrative begins in the middle of the action and then goes back in time, in the manner of an investigation. In it, Jeong-im combines old-fashioned fidelity with modern choices, study abroad and a new kind of marriage, which pleased readers; critics reproach it for its excessive use of coincidence, and the same encyclopedia judges it favourable to the colonial institutions, courts and gendarmerie.
Who it is for
A love story full of twists, which takes its characters from Korea to Japan, England and Manchuria.
Prizes and reception
A representative work of its author, reprinted ceaselessly until the mid-thirties and often imitated.
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