An interesting, but uneven, novel depicting Meiji Japan

This is a very interesting novel, but probably only for upper grades and college as it centers on a mistress to a moneylender. This is one of two translations, and is the weaker of the two in terms of readability and accuracy, but it is also much less expensive than the other translation, published by a university press.
The novel can be productively compared to the film version, as there are several substantial changes that speak to the difference of time (the novel being written around 1913 and the film a product of the post-war 1950s.)