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The Diary of Lady Murasaki
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Format: Paperback / softback
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The Diary of Lady Murasaki
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See moreThis is the diary of Lady Murasaki, the Japanese prose writer. It describes the Heian court at its apogee and offers an intimate picture of the author's life as tutor and companion to the timid Empress Shoshi. It reveals the underside of imperial splendour from a female point of view.
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Description
The Diary recorded by Lady Murasaki (c. 973 – c. 1020), author of The Tale of Genji, is an intimate picture of her life as tutor and companion to the young Empress Shoshi. Told in a series of vignettes, it offers revealing glimpses of the Japanese imperial palace: the auspicious birth of a prince, rivalries between the Emperor's consorts, with sharp criticism of Murasaki's fellow ladies-in-waiting and drunken courtiers, and telling remarks about the timid Empress and her powerful father, Michinaga.
The Diary of Lady Murasaki is also a work of great subtlety and intense personal reflection. Murasaki makes penetrating insights into human psychology, her pragmatic observations always balanced by an exquisite and pensive melancholy.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780140435764
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 07 March 1996
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Contributors:
- Introduction by Richard Bowring
- Notes by Richard Bowring
- Translated by Richard Bowring
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 9.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 112g
Pages: 144
About the Author
Lady Murasaki lived in Japan at the end of the ninth century. She was the author of The Tale of the Genji, which has been hailed as the first novel. Richard Bowring has also translated The Tale of the Genji and is editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan.
Also by Murasaki Shikibu
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