robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (11/24/83)
One book which should be highly recommended is "The Tale of Genji by an anonymous female author known as Lady Murasaki. This is certainly the first novel ever written (about 1000 years ago!!!!), and it is most definitely a novel. It is also an incredibly fine novel. It tells a story which is centered on one character, beginning before his birth and going on after his death. The story shows tremendous character development for the hero, who starts as a beautiful young Prince, becomes a brilliant political strategist, but also deepens his knowledge of religion (Buddhism) so that his fading days are heavily colored by Buddhist philosophy. The Tale is written in Medieval Japanese. It has been translated brilliantly at least three times (one of these into modern Japanese). One of the translations, by Arthur Waley into English, is highly regarded as one of the greatest translations of anything into anything. The Tale of Genji takes place in a society that is utterly foreign to modern life. It is also foreign to all the preconceived notions we have about ancient japanese society, since most of what is popular knowledge (e.g., Samurai warriors and good cooking) developed hundreds of years after the book was written. In order to understand what is going on in the Tale, it is a good idea to FIRST read a delightful, entertaining, and scholarly work called (hmm, I can't quite remember the title, something like:) The World of the Shining Prince, by Ivan Morris. This book is specifically an introduction to the tale of Genji and 10th century Japanese society. If you read the Tale of Genji, you will inevitably come away wondering how it is possible for a 10th century person to write so fine a novel, and you will wonder whether most of the credit should go to the translator (Waley); Ivan Morris tackles this problem, and tries to give you a feel for the problems of translation here, as well as describing the Society in which the book was written. - Keremath, care of: Robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1 or: allegra!eosp1