Author:Murasaki Shikibu,Royall Tyler
The first complete new translation for 25 years of the acknowledged masterpiece of Japanese literature. Lady Murasaki's great 11th century novel is a beautifully crafted story of love, betrayal and death at the Imperial Court. At the core of this epic is Prince Genji, the son of an emperor, whose passionate character, love affairs and shifting political fortunes, offer an equisite glimpse of the golden age of Japan. Royal Tyler's superb new translation is scrupulously true to the Japanese original but appeals immeadiately to the modern reader. This edition also includes notes, glossaries, character lists and a chronology to enable the reader to appreciate the richness of this classic of world literature.
This is one to gobble up in a single sitting
—— CompanyHugely enjoyable
—— HeatA witty novel about love
—— BThe leading comic romantic novelist of her generation
—— GuardianWilliams has fashioned an always engaging, psychologically convincing work of fiction - a consistent and well-realized portrait
—— New YorkerA highly imaginative account of the life and times of Augustus-a brilliant novel
—— Library JournalA brilliant epistolary novel about Octavius Caesar and ancient Rome...all three [of John Williams'] novels show a similar narrative arc: a young man's initiation, vicious male rivalries, subtler tensions between men and women, fathers and daughters, and finally a bleak sense of disappointment, even futility.
—— New York TimesExquisite...brims with great lines
—— Chicago TribuneA vividly imagined re-creation of classical Rome, but its intuitive grasp of the experience of immense power makes it an unusual, and superior, novel
—— Boston GlobeThere could be no better year than 2014 to rediscover this one
—— Mary Beard , Times Literary Supplement