then already prominent name to the novel, as the original publisher Kinkodo refused to print the novel with Futabatei's name on it. Futabatei was nonetheless quickly identified as the book's true author; with the publication of the second part, he was billed as "co-author". The first two parts were released in book form, the third and final part serialised in the magazine Miyako no hana, also a Kinkodo publication. Despite the novel's sudden and open ending, it was regarded as complete by critics and readers in the years after its publication. The last chapter closed with the line "end", and a remaining element of uncertainty was not new to Japanese literature. However, in 1937, critic Izumi Yanagida brought on the possibility that the novel might have been left unfinished, referring to an 1897 interview with Futabatei. In this interview, Futabatei had spoken of an original plot outline which had Noboru win Osei, only to desert her and marry his chief's sister-in-law instead. In Futabatei's posthumously discovered journals, four more plot outlines had been sketched by him, but none of these had been realised. Although the influence of Ivan Goncharov's 1859 novel Oblomov on Ukigumo has been repeatedly pointed out by literary scholars, translator Marleigh Grayer Ryan stressed out the many differences between the books: for instance, Futabatei's protagonist is a member of the lower class, not the aristocracy, does not feel any nostalgia for the old times, and is only temporarily inactive due to his current unemployment, not continuously by "self-induced pathological inertia" (Ryan). While Ukigumo was highly successful with critics and readers, Futabatei was unsatisfied with the result, feeling that he had fallen behind his intended goal and failed as a writer. He stopped writing fiction for years, instead taking a job at the government gazette Kanpō. English translation Adaptations Ukigumo has been adapted for Japanese television in 1994 and 2016. Notes References 19th-century Japanese novels Modernist novels Realist novels Meiji period in fiction 1887 novels Novels set in Tokyo