Sōseki坊っちゃん
Japanese · Natsume Sōseki
Japan’s best-loved novel: a hothead’s war on humbug.
The opening, set exactly as it reads in the app.
Sōseki wrote Botchan in a matter of days, and it reads like it: one long, glorious burst of temper. A Tokyo hothead takes a teaching post in the provinces and finds the school stocked with flatterers and schemers. Against them he has nothing but his inherited recklessness and an honesty he cannot switch off. It is the funniest book in modern Japanese, and under the comedy runs the question Sōseki never let go: what does it cost to stay decent among the smooth? Japan’s best-loved novel, and the friendliest door into its language.
Read. Listen. Understand. Speak.
A great book rewards the reader who returns. The edition picks up exactly where you left off, and stays out of the way otherwise. Free on your first chapter.
The original and the translation, side by side.
The author’s words align line by line with a clear English translation—two columns on iPad and a paired reading flow on iPhone.
Every line, in a native voice.
Hear how the language actually sounds: its weight, its rhythm, not just how it looks on the page.
Notes for the line you’re on.
Tap any line for the grammar, the words, and the context behind it, written by us, for this text. An editor at your elbow, not a dictionary.
Read aloud, and hear how you did.
Read a line yourself and the edition scores it on your phone: the whole line first, then sound by sound. Your voice never leaves the device.
The particulars.
- The text
- 坊っちゃん, Natsume Sōseki
- Translation
- Public-domain Japanese (Natsume Sōseki, d. 1916; published 1906). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
- Pricing
- The first chapter is free: the complete app, every feature. One unlock covers the rest, yours forever, $19.99. No subscription, no ads.
- Privacy
- Speech analysis runs on device. Your reading and your voice never leave your phone.
- Universal
- iPhone & iPad. Side-by-side columns on the larger screen.