[DeepL Translation - needs review] A masterpiece of girls' fiction that has been read throughout the ages
The setting is a mission school in Yokohama in the early Showa period. A new student, Michiko, receives letters from two upperclassmen.
Yoko is a graceful and fragile girl, and Katsuko is a competitive and competitive woman. Michiko is torn between the two, but...
In 1937, this story was serialized in the legendary "Shojo no tomo" magazine, and together with the graceful illustrations by...
Language: the main difficulty for me is the orthography - different spelling conventions, older kanji (tho still the modernized forms), different kanji choices than we would use today (ec 廻る instead of 廻る, 仕合わせ instead of 幸せ, and many such others), unfamiliar vocab, and some antiquated speech patterns. In terms of grammar and stuff, I think it's pretty close to something like マリア様がみてる | L29. However unlike マリア様がみてる, transitions between perspective characters or scenes are not always well delineated, and that definitely adds to the challenge. This is certainly worlds easier than say 花物語 | L39, so if you're looking for a Class S work to start to explore the genre with, this is probably a good starting point.
Editions: There is a (tricky to find ) digital edition from the 1950s/60s in existence that has some more modernized spellings, and furigana as well. However the physical book comes with illustrations, very helpful footnotes, and some additional biographical and historical writing about the work and author. So I'd definitely recommend grabbing the physical copy.
Story: I found the characters enjoyable and interesting enough, and the plot as well. It's definitely easy to see a lot of parallels with マリア様がみてる (written 50 years later), and it seems pretty clear to me that this partially laid the foundation for that. Unlike まりみて, this relies very heavily on plot, and less on inner monologue (except for certain dramatic portions) - so it moves much faster, and is a bit less idyllic, but has less depth. Otherwise the main conflict is essentially a love triangle/NTR storyline, and that's where things really start to pick up. However, unlike modern implementations (at least the ones I've read) Katsuko, the disruptive character, is actually a force for good in Michiko's life, in various ways, and not just a manipulative object of desire. I did mostly like the way the main conflict is resolved.
Worth giving a read, if you think you might be interested. We had a book club on it as well: https://forums.learnnatively.com/t/discussion-thread-for-informal-class-s-club-now-reading/14320