"Those who wish to deepen their acquaintance with Murasaki's wondrous
world will certainly find Puette's guide most helpful." --The Japan
Times
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 translation of the work by Arthur Waley and Edward G.
Seidensticker, this 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.
No longer does the reader have to try and guess the novel's cultural and
historical milieu. The author presents brief, illustrated essays on
historical, philosophical, and cultural features of the novel, and
discusses such relevant aspects as the balance between the tenets of
Shintoism and Buddhism, the pervasive concepts of karma in human
relationships, and the poetic aspects of aware. Both general readers
and literature students will find the background information contained
in this "companion" indispensable to their reading and interpretation of
this complex novel.
