![]() ![]() The complete text comprises 54 chapters, but the version I read was the 1882 translation by Kenchō Suematsu, which only includes the first 17 chapters. Sometimes called the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji was written in the early 11th century by Murasaki Shikibu, a woman of the court of the Heian Empress Akiko. If not, I’ll at least have gotten a taste. ![]() ![]() I figured that if I love it, I can still indulge in the full meal someday. With that in mind, I decided to treat this short version as a taster. When I realized that I had an abridged version, I was irritated, but then I remembered that some classic works really should be shorter, so maybe an abridged version wouldn’t be a bad thing. (And yes, the all the posts related to the readalong last year should have been a clue, but I forgot about it because I do tend to tune these things out if I’m not participating or haven’t read the book.) As it happens, my knowledge of Japanese literature is strong enough to tell me the Genji is an important work, but not strong enough to tell me that it’s also crazy long. I picked this up at the Green Valley Book Fair last week without realizing it was an abridged edition because it doesn’t say so on the cover (grumble, grumble). ![]() In my defense, it was partly an accident. I read an abridged version of The Tale of Genji. ![]()
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