Murasaki Shikibu

The classic novel of court life in tenth and eleventh-century Japan centers on the exploits of a nobleman known as the shining Genji, son of an emperor, and those of Kaoru, grandson of Genji's best friend.

The Tale of Genji

Joe Doutrich 

In the eleventh century Murasaki Shikibu, a lady in the Heian court of Japan, wrote the world's first novel. But The Tale of Genji is no mere artifact. It is, rather, a lively and astonishingly nuanced portrait of a refined society where every dalliance is an act of political consequence, a play of characters whose inner lives are as rich and changeable as those imagined by Proust. Chief of these is "the shining Genji," the son of the emperor and a man whose passionate impulses create great turmoil in his world and very nearly destroy him. This edition, recognized as the finest version in English, contains a dozen chapters from early in the book, carefully chosen by the translator, Edward G. Seidensticker, with an introduction explaining the selection. It is illustrated throughout with woodcuts from a seventeenth-century edition.

Sherry

Ananya 

Joshua Line

Eloise

The first translation of the Japanese masterpiece in a generation introduces modern readers to this brilliant account of courtly life in medieval Japan. 25,000 first printing.

The Tale of Genji

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