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    Genji Monogatari
    Genji Monogatari
    Genji Monogatari
    Ebook321 pages7 hours

    Genji Monogatari

    By Murasaki Shikibu and Kencho Suematsu

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    Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) is the Japan's earliest novel and the most famous work in Japan's literary history. It remains the finest portrayal of court life in the classical Heian period, some ten centuries ago. The author, Murasaki Shikibu (Lady Murasaki) was a member of the celebrated Fujiwara clan, which virtually created the history and culture of the Heian age.

    The novel has for its theme the many loves of the radiantly charming Prince Genji, son of the emperor and paragon of the ladies of the court. But its underlying motif is the fleeting nature of life in a transient world of beauty and grace, of love and enmity. It is an incredibly absorbing tale, distinguished by the author's amazing insight in her treatment of human personality and human events.

    Its diversity of characters and its subtle inquiries into the meaning of life make it one of the most significant and memorable of books. Some have compared it with Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, and certainly there is validity in the comparison. It most decidedly deserves its place among the world's foremost literary classics. Genji Monogatari, an immensely long novel, is presented here in an abridged translation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTuttle Publishing
    Release dateSep 11, 2012
    ISBN9781462904730
    Genji Monogatari

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    Reviews for Genji Monogatari

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    • 5/5
      This is a phenomenal novel. Difficult to read, yes; but definitely a worthwhile effort. If offers a panorama of characters surrounding the lives and loves of Genji and Murasaki. It opens a window into life of ancient Japan, a time when admiration for beauty prevailed.
    • 3/5
      There are definitely some things to like about Murasaki Shikibu's massive "The Tale of Genji," especially if you're interested in this period of Japanese culture. The book's biggest strength is in the description of daily life of the Japanese court and commoners and in this manner, the book has an almost cinematic feel.The story centers around Genji, the son of the Emperor, who is removed from the line of succession because his mother was of lower class and was acceptable. With power out of his grasp, Genji more or less becomes a collector of women, whom he installs in different wings of his house. As he ages, his political fortunes change a bit, then stagnate and the things Genji did as a young man circle back as he experiences them from the opposite end. There were parts of of the book that were cringy for me -- even though I understand this was a different time period -- not all of these women really wanted to be collected and his relationship with the young Murasaki was troubling. Overall, I thought the book was okay, but it definitely wasn't something I would have pushed through if it weren't on the 1,001 list.
    • 3/5
      Considered the first novel written in ancient Japan. I took this on as it is cited as a classic in literature. It was of monumental length and somewhat difficult for me to follow and associate the multitude of characters that emerged.The story itself basically covers the romantic intrigues of Genji and his son over a long period in the court of feudal Japan. I did not find it all that engaging through much of the narrative but as an insight to society and its customs it was certainly educational. I am glad I stuck with it and finished but it is not a tome I would wish to revisit anytime soon.
    • 4/5
      The Tale of Genji is a rare glimpse into eleventh century Japan. Murasaki Shikibu does a magnificent job describing the life at the imperial court. The story follows the life of Genji who is the son of the emperor, but his mother is of very low rank so he is unable to become an heir. Even though Genji cannot become an heir to the thrown he is the jewel of the imperial court, being talented in everything that was valued at the time including: poetry, dance, koto playing, and a keen eye for ascetics. Some could say that Genji is the equivalent of the European Renaissance man.The good looks that the people at court thought would lead to Genji having a short life, proved to be wrong and ended up turning Genji into s true ladies man. Most of the story is consumed by Genji's affairs, which can be a bit tiresome and confusing. Genji chose some rather unexpected characters to become his lovers including a little girl that he brings to the palace to shape into the perfect wife. One good thing about all of Genji's affairs is it gives the reader the chance to read many different Waka, which are two lined poems that would be exchanged between lovers.I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Japanese history, since it is written by someone who lived during the Heian period. This book is also good for anyone who truly enjoys classics because it is considered one of the WORLD's first novels. However if you don't mind lengthy books, I would recommend reading the unabridged version which has 54 chapters compared to the 12 available in this version. One plus to the abridged version is it is full of woodblock printings inspired by the novel.
    • 3/5
      One of the first books ever written and by a woman! That's why I picked it up, but it is really hard to read the translation. The language is very flowery, prosaic and hard to slog through. It's made even harder because very few people are named by their actual names in the story so it's hard to tell who's who. There is a story between the covers somewhere about a prince and his amorous adventures. if you are interested in Japan and its history and culture it is worth a read
    • 5/5
      What a great book! Admittedly it took me two goes to read it, but the first time i tried I was commuting to work by walking several miles and it is a great big brick of a novel. Now i drive everywhere thats much less of a problem.It also took me quite a while to get into - the elliptical way of referring to people and events was quite confusing at first, as are the very japanese sensibilities. However, well worth persavereing with. I'd almost like to learn japanese so I coudl go and read it in the original, but somehow I can't see that happening. I'd also like to read other translations, though by all accounts the [[Waley]] version has less to do with the original text than you would suppose from a translation. I'll have to keep an eye out for other versions.
    • 4/5
      The story is wonderful, at once grounded in an idealized Heian Japan and universal. The trappings are peculiar to the setting, of course, but the motivations, emotions, and responses of the characters are perfectly intelligible to the modern reader. In other words, it's everything you'd expect from a work that has the distinction of being the world's oldest novel.That's the good news. The bad news is that it's long and complex, which makes it a difficult read. Murasaki Shikibu didn't use any names for her characters when she wrote it. Instead she referred to characters rather obliquely by things like title or place of residence, which often change over the course of the story.I've found that it's a book you cannot put down and come back to later and be able to pick up right where you left off. It's too complex for that. Rather, you have to be able to dedicate yourself to reading the book from start to finish, which is difficult to do given its length.Casual readers will probably prefer an abridged version of this classic. Liza Dalby's Tale of Murasaki is also an excellent and accessible introduction to this work.
    • 5/5
      The Tale of Genji, what can you say? It might be considered the world's first psychological novel, but some consider it deadly boring, some consider it a soap opera set in Heian Japan, others can never get past Genji's so-called "Oedipus Complex." I find a wonderful, relaxing escape to a long ago society. Dig beneath the surface of Genji's numerous romantic escapades and you'll find that he really is a well drawn character, with as many flaws and merits. His journey is worth following.If you are only going to read one translation of the Genji, make sure it's the Royall Tyler one. This is a beautiful, beautiful translation. Seidensticker can be rather dry, and Waley can have some rather jarring anachronism, but this one just flows so smoothly and is true to the somewhat intuitive style of the original Japanese. This is also a book that you shouldn't read in a hurry. Take the time to savor it. Maybe even just a chapter here, a chapter there. Curl up with a cup of tea and just drift for a while.
    • 4/5
      It took a while to read, but it was worth the effort! An interesting insight into the Imperial court and society in Heian era Japan. I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed being a woman in that time and place!
    • 4/5
      Once I figured out how to hold this book with one hand and a nursing newborn in the other, I tore through this book.
    • 3/5
      My university copy of this book. We have another on our home library shelf. When I was studying Asian History, this was a must read. I don't remember much, except that this is often referred to as the world's first novel -- lots of pillow talk, and descriptions of sleeves as well.It's considered a classic both from Eastern and Western standpoints.
    • 3/5
      The Tale of Genji, thought by many to be the first novel in the history of world literature, was written by a woman, Murasaki Shikibu, in the eleventh century. Lady Murasaki lived during the Heian Period (794-1185). Reading a general description of this era, it is known for the writing of poetry, diaries, and fiction produced by court ladies for court ladies. Themes often included the love of nature as well as the art of love within the court. This is the tale of “Prince” Genji, a son to a second concubine and thus his status is relegated to a glorified commoner. With no real duties or status, Genji embarks upon making the ladies happy with poetry, song, and lovemaking. His first “love” is a concubine of his father, Fujitsubo. Fujitsubo is the niece of the deceased Kiritsubo consort which she highly resembles. For the remainder of the story, Genji will pursue women who resemble his mother; Freud would have a heyday. While this book does give us important history and cultural information,my personal take is that it reads like a soap opera; maybe a pre-cursor to Don Juan. But then, give the people what they want, eh? Because of the longevity of this book, I rated it 3 stars, but I didn’t really care for it. Read it because is was on the 1001 BYMRBYD list.
    • 4/5
      When I began looking for an English edition of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji to read, I had only two major requirements. First, I wanted a complete and unabridged translation, and second, I wanted a translation that was true to the original. The most comprehensive edition that I was able to find, and the one I ended up reading, was Royall Tyler's translation. Penguin first released Tyler's translation of The Tale of Genji in 2001 as a two-volume hardcover box set and then later in 2003 in a massive single-volume paperback edition (which is the version I own and read.) I wanted to read The Tale of Genji for several reasons. It is a major work of Japanese literature that continues to be highly influential. It was also written during the Heian period in the eleventh century, making it one of the first novels to have been written. But one of the primary reasons I wanted to read The Tale of Genji was to understand all of the references made to it that I keep coming across.The Tale of Genji is an epic, inter-generational story filled with court intrigue, passion, desire and longing, with just a touch of the supernatural. It's almost like reading a Heian period soap opera. The eponymous Genji is the son of the Emperor's favorite Intimate. An exceptional man in both appearance and character, much of The Tale of Genji follows his life and romantic exploits. And because of his good looks, he is able to get away with much more than he really should. The last third of the novel turns to the lives of his heirs and descendants and their own romantic follies. While there is certainly an overarching narrative to The Tale of Genji, the novel frequently feels like a collection of very closely interconnected short stories. There is also a fair amount of humor in the tale. It's as if the reader is privy to the best court gossip and scandals.One of the things that I love about Tyler's translation of The Tale of Genji is that it is so much more than just a translation. In addition to the copious and very helpful footnotes, Tyler provides an abundance of other useful information about the work and its context in the form of an extensive introduction, maps and diagrams, a chronology, general glossary, explanations of the importance of clothing and color, descriptions of offices and titles, a summary of the numerous poetic allusions, a list of characters, and suggestions for further reading. Each chapter begins with an explanation of its title, its relationships to other chapters, and indicates which characters are involved and the current title by which they are known. Also included are delightful line illustrations by Minoru Sugai depicting scenes and objects from The Tale of Genji, originally commissioned by Shogakukan Publishing. The only thing missing that I would have liked to have seen would be a family and relationship chart since things can get pretty complicated.Granted, I haven't read any others to be able to compare, but I am very glad that I chose Tyler's translation of The Tale of Genji. Because Tyler remains so faithful to the original Japanese it's not always an easy read due to the amount of detail that must be gleaned from context rather than being explicitly stated and the complicated sentence structures. But Tyler offers plenty of guidance for the reader who wants it and I found his translation to be both elegant, accessible, and informative. Even excluding the additional material provided by Tyler, The Tale of Genji is a lengthy novel. Instead of ploughing through the book like I might have, I chose to take my time with the novel, reading a few chapters every few weeks and extending my enjoyment over a long period. Reading The Tale of Genji was a wonderfully immersive experience into Heian period Japan. For me, it was completely worth the time and effort required to really appreciate the tale.Experiments in Manga
    • 3/5
      This is a work I've often seen named as the first novel, as well as a work that the introduction claims greatly influenced and embodies the Japanese culture--and this by a women writer. Not many undeniably great classics, especially this old, can claim female authorship, and this one was written around the turn of the first millennium, when Europe was just emerging from the Dark Ages. The Tale of the Genji, the product of a sophisticated court, is thus close in age to Beowulf, and by and large, in its English translation in some ways more accessible. In other ways not. The translator himself, Waley, noted it's in many ways "alien to modern sensibilities" and at times I wasn't sure of what was happening, whether I was supposed to interpret Genji's character favorably and wondered what I missed in translation despite frequent footnotes. On the other hand, that very alien sensibility is a lot of the attraction. This is very much a very different world than ours.The story involves Prince Genji and his various amours in the first four parts and his descendants, especially his purported son Kaoru and his grandchild Niou, in the last two parts. (Kaoru's greatest quality, I kid you not, is his strong "entrancing personal fragrance.") Genji reminds me of a Japanese version of Don Juan. At times things are told so obliquely though, I wasn't always sure if he was involved with various women platonically or sexually, or even whether the various relationships are consensual or not. The women are often depicted as ambivalent and Genji's beauty and accomplishments seem not to simply excuse but erase his flaws in the minds of others. But then, no male character in the book acts all that differently--they're all relentlessly sexually aggressive. When Genji kidnaps Murasaki, a ten-year-old girl he's enamored with, I wasn't sure at first of the nature of his regard and the way he grooms her into a future wife, and initiates her into sex, is indeed creepy to my "modern sensibilities." Murasaki is the major female character in the book, and by and large is too passive for me to feel a connection with her. But then, so is just about every female character in the book. The Buddhist Japan depicted in this novel is every bit as misogynistic as the Christian Europe of this era. According to the book, Buddhist doctrine holds women are inherently evil--or they wouldn't be incarnated as women. Nor are they allowed into "Amida's paradise" in the afterlife. Women, at least of the upper classes, can only converse with men not part of their immediate family through screens or curtains or through notes or intermediaries. So by and large in this book women are not directly active but acted upon and are constantly cringing away from male attentions, weeping about (but excusing) rape, and then often starving themselves to death, willing themselves to fade away, planning to throw themselves into the river or taking vows as a nun.I don't know that I can recommend this as a great read or one that can really give you insight into modern Japanese culture. A reviewer pointed out that, like a modern English-speaker reading Beowulf, modern Japanese can't sit down and read Tale of Genji and comprehend it without a translation and notes. This doesn't fit Western (or maybe even Japanese) expectations of what is Japanese. No geishas, samurai, martial arts, kabuki, haiku, manga, sushi, tea ceremony--or ritual suicide. In fact, suicide isn't honorable at this time, it's a disgrace. This is such a lengthy tome--over a thousand door-stopper pages, with hundreds of characters; it's hard to keep track of who is who, especially since in the original they're not named, though the translation I read mercifully gives them monikers to make it easier to follow the narrative. It's often a tedious read, and it doesn't so much end as stop. Nevertheless, I was often struck at times by the psychological complexity and the beauty of descriptions, and it gives a detailed look at the court life of the period. This isn't at all a martial culture that is described, but one with a very elaborate aesthetic where courtiers burst into impromptu verse and notes are judged not just by content but color and quality of paper, how it's scented, style and quality of handwriting, how it's folded and what flower the paper is tied up with. Given its historical importance, I'm glad I tackled it. I took it at a pace averaging less than a hundred pages each day--slow for me. My rating tries to strike a balance between my recognition of its greatness as well as how much a slog I found most of it. It fits between the one star GoodReads "didn't like it" and the five star "it's amazing" because to be honest my reaction is both. I think this is one of those works, like The Bible or Confucius' Analects or The Koran you get more out of if you prepare yourself, and not something I should have tackled as a stand alone. Someone pointed me to an essay by Michael Dirda about his experience reading the book. Before reading it he loaded himself up with works on Japanese literature and history such as Ivan Morris' The World of the Shining Prince and Donald Keene's Japanese Literature. Others recommend Liza Dalby's Tale of Murasaki for an accessible fictional biography of Lady Murasaki and the Heian court. Maybe some day, if I'm masochistic enough, I'll give Genji another try after preparing myself better--but I doubt it. (Oh, and as a Star Trek fan I couldn't help but be amused to see that Genji's moniker is "Hikuru." Sulu's first name is supposedly derived from it.)
    • 3/5
      This was pretty hard to follow at first, probably because most characters are referred to by their titles or the titles of their relatives (and these change over time) and because the first few chapters are so episodic, but gets easier to follow in the later sections, particularly the final part about Niou, Kaouru and Uji. It was interesting to read about this culture/time period that I don't know much about, but I hated all the main characters too much to be able to say that I enjoyed it.
    • 3/5
      The Tale of Genji, thought by many to be the first novel in the history of world literature, was written by a woman, Murasaki Shikibu, in the eleventh century. Lady Murasaki lived during the Heian Period (794-1185). Reading a general description of this era, it is known for the writing of poetry, diaries, and fiction produced by court ladies for court ladies. Themes often included the love of nature as well as the art of love within the court. This is the tale of “Prince” Genji, a son to a second concubine and thus his status is relegated to a glorified commoner. With no real duties or status, Genji embarks upon making the ladies happy with poetry, song, and lovemaking. His first “love” is a concubine of his father, Fujitsubo. Fujitsubo is the niece of the deceased Kiritsubo consort which she highly resembles. For the remainder of the story, Genji will pursue women who resemble his mother; Freud would have a heyday. While this book does give us important history and cultural information,my personal take is that it reads like a soap opera; maybe a pre-cursor to Don Juan. But then, give the people what they want, eh? Because of the longevity of this book, I rated it 3 stars, but I didn’t really care for it. Read it because is was on the 1001 BYMRBYD list.
    • 3/5
      Considered one of the earliest novels, this book was written by a lady in waiting of the imperial Japanese court in the 11th century. It features the romantic misadventures of Genji, the son of the emperor. Genji is a bit of a rogue, who takes advantage of his powerful position to get what he wants. He seduces young women, and sometimes carries them off to a remote location away from prying eyes.

      As I read it, I kept reminding myself that it is a piece of history, written in medieval times to entertain the women at court. It provides us a glimpse of the culture and class distinctions of the era from a person who lived through it. The prose and poetry are beautiful in places. I found it reasonably entertaining, though the protagonist engages in some pretty reprehensible behavior. A modern reader may get a little impatient with the slow pace and repetition. I think it is wonderful that we have preserved this piece of historic writing.
    • 5/5
      Probably the longest book I've read to date. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and translated by Royall Tyler was, in my opinion, a good read. It's one of the oldest novels in human history, written by a women (which in itself is amazing knowing it was written in the Middle Ages), and extremely important to Japanese literature and culture. At time I was a little confused with the plot because most characters don't have proper first names, mainly titles. Thankfully Tyler was a good translator often writing notes on various substitute translations and explained things to a Western audiences. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in studying Japanese culture.

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