The exuberant narrative asides are a little annoying—although certainly understandable in a first novel, they tend to come off as “juvenile self-regard.” But I find it hard to believe that he really didn’t complete the novel, and imagine he just refused to re-write the “happy ending” demanded by his editors. Since An Adopted Husband (その面影) is so similar, you have to wonder why Futabatei (when he started writing his own novels again) didn’t just re-publish the completed work.