In 2021, during August’s Women in Translation Month, I decided to embark on a project centred upon Murasaki Shikibu’s classic Japanese novel The Tale of Genji. I had read the book before, but after a lesiurely reread, I went on to examine several other translations of the Tale, as well as reading a couple of non-fiction works looking at the novel.
When you add all these reviews to a few related posts I had published earlier, it comes to quite a substantial collection, and with the distinct possibility (likelihood, in fact) of going on more adventures in Genjiland in the future, I thought it was time to create a page bringing all my posts together in one place for a more manageable experience. I hope this page will be of help to any readers considering embarking on their own journey into court life in Heian Japan, and I welcome any suggestions as to other books I should try 🙂
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My original two-part review of the Royall Tyler translation (first posted in June 2015):
Part One and Part Two
My series of posts on various translations of the Tale into English (August 2021):
The Suematsu Genji (Kenchō Suematsu, 1872)
The Waley Genji (Arthur Waley, 1925-1933)
The Seidensticker Genji (Edward Seidensticker, 1976)
The Tyler Genji (Royall Tyler, 2001)
The Washburn Genji (Dennis Washburn, 2015)
The McCullough Genji (Helen Craig McCullough, 1994)
‘The Tale of Genji’ – Ranking the Translations
Other posts connected to the Tale:
The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature (April 2014)
by Michael Emmerich
Reading the Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium (January 2016)
edited by Thomas Harper and Haruo Shirane
The Diary of Lady Murasaki (August 2017)
by Murasaki Shikibu (tr. Richard Bowring)
Glimpses of Genji through the Looking-Glass of Language (August 2021)
by Charles De Wolf
A Proximate Remove: Queering Intimacy and Loss in the Tale of Genji (August 2021)
by Reginald Jackson
The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan (January 2022)
by Ivan Morris
Genji Days (January 2022)
by Edward Seidensticker
The Splendor of Longing in the Tale of Genji (January 2022)
by Norma Field
Other posts connected to the Heian Era:
The Nihon Ryōiki (September 2013)
by Kyōkai (tr. Burton Watson)
The Pillow Book (August 2014)
by Sei Shōnagon (tr. Meredith McKinney)
The Tale of the Heike (January 2015)
tr. Royall Tyler
As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams (January 2017)
by Lady Sarashina (tr. Ivan Morris)
The Gossamer Years: Kagerō Nikki (August 2018)
by Mother of Michitsuna (tr. Edward Seidensticker)
Unbinding the Pillow Book (January 2019)
by Gergana Ivanova
The Tales of Ise (July 2019)
by Ariwara no Narihira (tr. Peter MacMillan)
The Tosa Diary (January 2022)
by Ki no Tsurayuki (tr. William N. Porter)
Tony's Reading List 