Murasaki Shikibu, born in 978, was a member of Japan's Fujiwara
clan, which ruled behind the scenes during the Heian Period by
providing the brides and courtesans of all the emperors. Lady
Murasaki's rare literary talent, particularly her skill as a poet,
secured her a place in the court of Empress Akiko. After the death
of her husband, she cloistered herself to study Buddhism, raise her
daughter, and write the world's first novel, Genji monogatari, the
tale of the shining Prince Genji.
Royall Tyler (translator), an American, is retired from the
Australian National University, where he taught Japanese language
and literature for many years. He has a B.A. from Harvard
University and a Ph.D from Columbia University and has taught at
Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Wisconsin. He has also
translated The Tale of the Heiki and Japanese Noh Dramas for
Penguin Classics.
“An enormous achievement.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Both epic and intimate, [Genji] is a gorgeous evocation of a time
and place that have long since disappeared. But it’s also an
exploration of feelings and relations between men and women, as
fresh and beguiling to readers today as when it was first written.
A new translation that makes Genji accessible to contemporary
readers is a landmark event. [Tyler’s translation] has clearly been
a labor of love. In his beautifully written translation he tries to
get as close to the original as possible, immersing us in
eleventh-century Japan. Mr. Tyler’s translation is richly
embellished with footnotes that flag for us everything that
Murasaki and her contemporaries would have taken for granted. All
in all, Mr. Tyler’s translation is likely to be the definitive
edition of The Tale of Genji for years to come.” —The Wall Street
Journal
“The Tale of Genji set an insanely high standard for anything that
came after it. This latest edition is reader friendly at every
turn, with generous footnotes, character lists and lots of
illustrations to show what robes looked like, or swords, or houses.
You have to reach for comparisons to Tolstoy or Proust to convey
just what a captivating experience this story can be.”
—Newsweek
“Tyler’s delicate ear for the language of the original helps
breathe new life into the story of Genji.” —The New Yorker
“Though [Murasaki’s] setting was the royal Japanese court of one
thousand years ago, her characters managed to draw the reader into
their passion and terrors in an uncannily modern way. [Tyler’s
translation is] beautifully readable . . . it sets a new standard.
Not only is this new English edition the most scrupulously true to
the original, it also is superbly written and genuinely engaging. .
. . We are blessed to have Tyler’s help in reading it.” —The Los
Angeles Times Book Review
“The remarkable thing about Genji is . . . that it is a
masterpiece, the oldest full-length novel in existence, and still
very much alive. It is even livelier in the new translation by
Royall Tyler. Tyler skillfully catches the erotic flavor, the vivid
characterizations, and the allusive poetry of this classic. . . .
Readers will quickly find themselves immersed in a strange and
distant culture whose inhabitants’ loves, rivalries, suffering and
follies we can identify with our own.” —The Philadelphia
Inquirer
“An astonishingly rich, absorbing drama that has stood, and will
doubtless continue to stand, the severest tests of time and
changing literary fashions. There is nothing else on earth quite
like The Tale of Genji. Utterly irresistible.” —Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)
“One of the undisputed monuments of world literature. Tyler offers
a version that effectively captures the indirection and shades of
Murasaki’s court language. A major contribution to our
understanding of world literature; highly recommended.” —Library
Journal (starred review)
“Widely recognized as the world’s first novel, as well as one of
its best . . . painstakingly and tenderly translated by Tyler. An
epic narrative, it is also minutely attentive to particulars of
character, setting, emotion—even costume. Tyler clearly intends his
[translation] to be the definitive one. It is richer, fuller, and
more complicated than the others. Tyler’s formality of tone offers
readers a more graceful, convincing rendering of this one
thousand-year-old masterpiece. Scholars and novices alike should be
pleased.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Tyler has long shown himself to be one of the finest translators
of Japanese in our era. In producing this new Genji translation, he
has been able not only to draw upon his own skills as a writer, but
also to build on the efforts and accomplishments of his
predecessors . . . the Tyler version is by far the most helpful to
the general reader.” —The Washington Post Book World
“[Tyler] has crafted an elegant translation that remarkably renders
this eleventh-century tale in language so lively, vivid and
transparent, one could easily believe that the book was written by
some gifted postmodernist. Royall Tyler devoted space to
explaining, through the introduction and footnotes, nuances of the
time, helping help us place them into a modern context. This
edition of The Tale of Genji is beautifully realized, both as a
translation and as a seamless art object.” —The Cleveland Plain
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