The Tale of Genji (2 Volumes in Total)
by H
About This Novel
"The Tale of Genji" is the world's earliest full-length realistic novel and Japan's immortal "national literature". It ushered in the era of "mono-sorrow" and had a profound impact on the development of Japanese literature in later generations. It is known as the source of inspiration for Japanese literature and the highest peak of Japanese classical realism literature. The work was written between approximately 1001 and 1008 AD. The novel is set in the heyday of the Heian Dynasty in Japan, with the Genji family as the center. The first two parts describe the tragic or beautiful love lives of the Genji family and the women. The third part uses the son of the Genji family, Kaoru-kun, as the protagonist, and lays out the complicated love entanglements between men and women. The original text of the book is nearly a million words, and the 400-word manuscript uses about 2,400 sheets of paper. It has a total of fifty-four chapters, covering the lives of three generations, four generations of emperors, a period of more than seventy years, and nearly 500 characters. It shows the various aspects of court life in the Heian period (equivalent to the Northern Song Dynasty in my country), leaving a detailed and rich sketch of the aristocratic life in the Heian and prosperous times. The story is outstandingly elegant, the psychological description is ingenious, the structure is exquisite and meticulous, the beauty of the writing and the avant-garde aesthetic consciousness can be called "the classic among the classics", and it is the highest masterpiece in the history of Japanese literature. "The Tale of Genji" is known as Japan's "Dream of Red Mansions" and is listed among the top ten ideal collections of Asian literature along with "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Selected Poems of the Tang Dynasty".
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