The Tale of Genji
Murasaki Shikibu c. 1008 CE
This novel follows Prince Genji's loves and family ties at Japan's imperial court. Poems exchanged between lovers reveal feelings that court manners often keep hidden.
1292 pages 25h 5m reading time
- Often called the world's first novel, and the most celebrated work of Japanese literature.
- Shows how beauty and love are made deeper and sadder by the fact that nothing lasts (a feeling Japanese has a name for: "mono no aware").
- Explores the inner lives of its characters, especially women whose fates depend on the men around them, with a depth rare in fiction for many centuries after.
- For a thousand years it has shaped Japanese art and theater, from painted scrolls and screens to Noh plays and modern films and comics.
- Arthur Waley's English translation in the 1920s brought it to Western readers and put it among the great novels of world literature.
Written by a lady-in-waiting
Murasaki served Empress Shoshi at court, and her diary shows courtiers already reading her tale.
Shared one chapter at a time
Chapters were copied by hand and passed among court readers, who eagerly waited for the next ones.
No original copy survives
Murasaki's own manuscript is lost, and the oldest surviving copies were made about two hundred years later.
Waley left parts out
Arthur Waley's famous English version skipped one whole chapter and cut or freely reworded many passages.
Translated from Japanese by Arthur Waley 1925