The Tale of Genji

murasaki shikibu royall tyler minora sugai

Written in the eleventh century, this exquisite portrait of courtly life in medieval Japan is widely celebrated as the world’s first novel. Genji, the Shining Prince, is the son of an emperor. He is a passionate character whose tempestuous nature, family circumstances, love affairs, alliances, and shifting political fortunes form the core of this magnificent epic. Royall Tyler’s superior translation is detailed, poetic, and superbly true to the Japanese original while allowing the modern reader to appreciate it as a contemporary treasure. Supplemented with detailed notes, glossaries, character lists, and chronologies to help the reader navigate the multigenerational narrative, this comprehensive edition presents this ancient tale in the grand style that it deserves.

Genres classicsfictionjapanjapanese literaturehistorical fictionliteraturehistoricalasiaromancenovels

1182 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1000

Series

The Tale of Genji

Places

japan,

This edition

Format: 1182 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2003 by Penguin
ISBN: 9780142437148
ASIN: 014243714X
Language: English

Characters More characters

Genji

...
Fujitsubo

...
To No Chujo

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Murasaki

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Yugiri

...

About the author

murasaki shikibu

born perhaps 978
died perhaps 1031
Japanese: 紫式部

The Tale of Genji among the first examples of the novel as a literary form of Japanese writer Baroness Murasaki Shikibu greatly influenced later fiction.

People in English sometimes knew Murasaki Shikibu, a lady, a poet, and a maid of honor of the imperial court during the period of Heian. People best knew this earliest and most famous author between 1000 and 1008 in human history. Some scholars postulated Fujiwara Takako as her unknown, real, actual, given name. Her diary states that after a character, court nicknamed her "Murasaki," purple wisteria blossom."
"Shikibu" refers to position of her father in the bureau of ceremony.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasak...