If you wish to skip my introductory remarks and go to my comments about the book, scroll down to the dash marks.
Growing up in England, I had ready access to Penguins. They were cheap, dependable, and readily available. Penguin is now a whoppingly large conglomerate. Back then they were still quite a small company, out of Harmondsworth in the UK, and Baltimore in the US.
Two imprints of theirs stole my heart as they still do: Penguin Classics and Penguin Modern Classics. Many volumes from both series surround me as I write.
The particular work I wish to recommend I read many years ago: Lady Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of the Genji.
I cannot locate the Penguin edition I read. It is not Royall Tyler's translation, mentioned elsewhere on this site, because that was published in 2001. It is possible that the translation was by Richard Bowring, since he later translated The Diary of Lady Murasaki, which Penguin published 1986. I know that Penguin published this later than the Tale of the Genji.
I do have a copy beside me translated by Arthur Waley, published by Doubleday (as an Anchor Book) in 1955. If any of you read the book in earlier years, as I did, this may well be the edition you read. However, this particular edition is only Part 1 of the tale. Doubleday say on the inside cover that they also published Part 2, The Tale of the Genji: The Sacred Tree, although I have never seen it. The whole work comprises 6 parts.
Now I recollect. Penguin published a much expanded edition of The Tale of the Genji. I would regularly see it on the shelves but it appears to have been displaced by Royall Tyler's.
Either way I want to point to a more recent release. Tuttle:
have recently published the complete Arthur Waley translation (1184 pages). The quality of the book is excellent; good white paper and sewn binding. It is fairly expensive at $29.95 but, serendipitously, Tuttle offer it for $20.96 on their website. I am tempted.
Arthur Waley might well be the sort of man whom Edward Said disparaged with his disdain for the Western orientalists.
Be that as it may, I think that people like Waley are worth celebrating. Edward Said, and you and I have grown up in a world where an increasing sensitivity to the other is the norm. Arthur Waley drew our attention to people in other parts of the world and gave vivid illustrations of their cultures. I think we owe both Said and Waley a great deal. Since it has been some time since Waley's death (1966) and Said's more recent, the debt to Waley may be more obvious.
Waley taught himself Chinese and Japanese but never visited those countries. He published his first translation in 1918, followed by many others, including the work we are discussing here, the first volume of which he published in 1921. He deeply influenced an earlier generation of readers and academics on both sides of the Atlantic. It might not be too much to say that many university schools of oriental studies came about through his influence.
- - - - - - - - - - -
The Tale of the Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, written during the 11th century, is a Japanese court novel, to be sure, and a love story to boot. But also be assured, that Murasaki tells her tale so well you are quickly immersed in the world she relates and lose any sense of it being in either a foreign land or distant in time.
Her prose is straightforward and her control of her story telling swift and sure. She is a powerful story teller and she knows it. Her writing has an assurance that only a handful of writers over the ages have exhibited.
She is not sentimental, nor is she dramatic. The quiet authorial tone is a murmur in the reader's ear. The story unfolds with a naturalness that seem inevitable.
Few writers can match the sustained rhythm she maintains, page after page, chapter after chapter. Her limpid style carries one along, caught by the steady current of her tale telling, the scenery on the banks ever changing.
Let us close by quoting a short passage with gives you a sense of her exquisite writing. If nobody told you, how would you know that this was written a thousand years ago?
"The affair with the lady of the sedge was so unintentional and so insignificant that though he regarded it as rather frivolous and indiscreet, he saw no great harm in it. But if he did not take himself in hand before it was too late he would soon again be involved in some entanglement which might finally ruin his reputation." (p103, Doubleday edition, 1955)
Should you decide to embark on a wonderful journey in the company of the captivating Lady Murasaki, here is a chart to help guide your way.
Growing up in England, I had ready access to Penguins. They were cheap, dependable, and readily available. Penguin is now a whoppingly large conglomerate. Back then they were still quite a small company, out of Harmondsworth in the UK, and Baltimore in the US.
Two imprints of theirs stole my heart as they still do: Penguin Classics and Penguin Modern Classics. Many volumes from both series surround me as I write.
The particular work I wish to recommend I read many years ago: Lady Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of the Genji.
I cannot locate the Penguin edition I read. It is not Royall Tyler's translation, mentioned elsewhere on this site, because that was published in 2001. It is possible that the translation was by Richard Bowring, since he later translated The Diary of Lady Murasaki, which Penguin published 1986. I know that Penguin published this later than the Tale of the Genji.
I do have a copy beside me translated by Arthur Waley, published by Doubleday (as an Anchor Book) in 1955. If any of you read the book in earlier years, as I did, this may well be the edition you read. However, this particular edition is only Part 1 of the tale. Doubleday say on the inside cover that they also published Part 2, The Tale of the Genji: The Sacred Tree, although I have never seen it. The whole work comprises 6 parts.
Now I recollect. Penguin published a much expanded edition of The Tale of the Genji. I would regularly see it on the shelves but it appears to have been displaced by Royall Tyler's.
Either way I want to point to a more recent release. Tuttle:
(https://peripluspublishinggroup.com/t...)
have recently published the complete Arthur Waley translation (1184 pages). The quality of the book is excellent; good white paper and sewn binding. It is fairly expensive at $29.95 but, serendipitously, Tuttle offer it for $20.96 on their website. I am tempted.
Arthur Waley might well be the sort of man whom Edward Said disparaged with his disdain for the Western orientalists.
Be that as it may, I think that people like Waley are worth celebrating. Edward Said, and you and I have grown up in a world where an increasing sensitivity to the other is the norm. Arthur Waley drew our attention to people in other parts of the world and gave vivid illustrations of their cultures. I think we owe both Said and Waley a great deal. Since it has been some time since Waley's death (1966) and Said's more recent, the debt to Waley may be more obvious.
Waley taught himself Chinese and Japanese but never visited those countries. He published his first translation in 1918, followed by many others, including the work we are discussing here, the first volume of which he published in 1921. He deeply influenced an earlier generation of readers and academics on both sides of the Atlantic. It might not be too much to say that many university schools of oriental studies came about through his influence.
- - - - - - - - - - -
The Tale of the Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, written during the 11th century, is a Japanese court novel, to be sure, and a love story to boot. But also be assured, that Murasaki tells her tale so well you are quickly immersed in the world she relates and lose any sense of it being in either a foreign land or distant in time.
Her prose is straightforward and her control of her story telling swift and sure. She is a powerful story teller and she knows it. Her writing has an assurance that only a handful of writers over the ages have exhibited.
She is not sentimental, nor is she dramatic. The quiet authorial tone is a murmur in the reader's ear. The story unfolds with a naturalness that seem inevitable.
Few writers can match the sustained rhythm she maintains, page after page, chapter after chapter. Her limpid style carries one along, caught by the steady current of her tale telling, the scenery on the banks ever changing.
Let us close by quoting a short passage with gives you a sense of her exquisite writing. If nobody told you, how would you know that this was written a thousand years ago?
"The affair with the lady of the sedge was so unintentional and so insignificant that though he regarded it as rather frivolous and indiscreet, he saw no great harm in it. But if he did not take himself in hand before it was too late he would soon again be involved in some entanglement which might finally ruin his reputation." (p103, Doubleday edition, 1955)
Should you decide to embark on a wonderful journey in the company of the captivating Lady Murasaki, here is a chart to help guide your way.
http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/re...