Le goût des orties

Blurb

Some Prefer Nettles is a 1929 novel by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. It was first published in 1928–9 as a newspaper serial. The novel is often regarded as the most autobiographical of Tanizaki's works and one of his finest novels.
The Japanese title of the novel is literally water pepper-eating bugs, and is the first half of the Japanese saying tade kū mushi mo suki zuki, or "Even water pepper-eating bugs have preferences", equivalent to the English "Each to his own." The translation as Some Prefer Nettles was chosen by Edward Seidensticker; he considers it one of his most noted translations, and it has been included as a translation of the original saying in the authoritative Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary.