num_pages: 190
description: The Key is a novel told in the form of parallel diaries kept by a husband and wife which describe the last four months of their marriage. The husband (a professor in his fifties) frenziedly drives himself to even more intense sexual pleasures with the wife with whom he has lived for almost thirty years. He resorts to various stimulants: brandy and a handsome young man for her. In the day they record the previous night's experiences. Each suspects that the other is secretly reading their respective diaries, and wonders at the same time if the other does not actually intend that his daily confession be read. It is a masterful example of a theme which dominates all of Tanizaki's writing: the relationship of sexual desire to the will to live.
language: English
title: The Key
titlecomplete: The Key
genres: Classics, Asian Literature, Japan, Asia, Novels, Japanese Literature, 20th Century, Literature, Erotica, Fiction
ratings_count: 6156
places: Japan
publisher: Putnam Publishing Group, The