Name: Diary of Lady Murasaki (Penguin Classics)
SKU: 1562777
Price: 19.92 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: Murasaki Shikibu
ISBN: 9780140435764

portada Diary of Lady Murasaki (Penguin Classics)

Diary of Lady Murasaki (Penguin Classics)

Type

Physical Book

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Publisher

Penguin Classics

Year

1996

Language

English

Pages

144

Format

Paperback

ISBN

014043576X

ISBN13

9780140435764

Edition No.

Synopsis "Diary of Lady Murasaki (Penguin Classics) "

The Diary recorded by Lady Murasaki (c. 973-c. 1020), author of The Tale of Genji, is an intimate picture of her life as tutor and companion to the young Empress Shoshi. Told in a series of vignettes, it offers revealing glimpses of the Japanese imperial palace - the auspicious birth of a prince, rivalries between the Emperor's consorts, with sharp criticism of Murasaki's fellow ladies-in-waiting and drunken courtiers, and telling remarks about the timid Empress and her powerful father, Michinaga. The Diary is also a work of great subtlety and intense personal reflection, as Murasaki makes penetrating insights into human psychology - her pragmatic observations always balanced by an exquisite and pensive melancholy.

Murasaki Shikibu

(Author)

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Although her immense talent was recognized in her time, very little is known about the writer's life. She may have been born in 975, she may have died in 1014. Not even her real name is known. It is known that she was the daughter of a scholar, though a poet without talent, passionate about literature, who taught his daughter the Chinese language and its classics, but also passed on to her the love for the literature of her ancestors.

They say her father regretted that such a smart girl had not been born a boy to continue the literary prestige of the family. However, he took his young daughter with him on a long journey through the Empire. It is known that at the age of twenty-nine, Murasaki lived at the Court as a lady-in-waiting to the intelligent Empress Akiko. Between the year 1008 and the year 1010 she wrote her diary, perhaps simultaneously to the composition of The Tale of Genji.

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