Tale of Genji: A Reader's Guide

This is the most complete reader's guide available on Japan's highly revered novel, the eleventh-century classic, The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, referred to by Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata as "the highest pinnacle of Japanese literature." Written specifically to accompany the translations of the work by Arthur Waley and Edward G. Seidensticker, the guide offers detailed summaries and thematic commentaries, as well as cross-referenced notes on the novel's many characters. It also charts the essential progress of The Tale of Genji and introduces the reader to the more subtle complexities, literary devices, and conventions of Lady Murasaki's Heian Japan.