Reviews

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu

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katemc's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I cannot believe I finished it. It's been YEARS. But I'm DONE.

TLDR I really didn't like this. Probably the most sexually violent book I've ever read. Huge historical significance no doubt but for me that doesn't make it very good or interesting or compelling.

The good:
-The insight into and portrayal of the customs of the Heian court/Japanese aristocracy from a thousand years ago was interesting. I've read very little ancient fiction so the (relatively) contemporary perspective is fascinating from a sociological and historical perspective.
-The infusion of poetry throughout. Although I know much was lost in translation, the poetry was beautiful and played a really important communicative role between characters. Not something you see in more modern fiction.

The bad: everything else?
I know it was seminal in the development of fiction. The intro was very useful in contextualizing it and I can see its value. But that (to me) doesn't make it very good fiction. It can be important as first (and likely best) of its kind, and not necessarily particularly enjoyable as a piece of fiction.

Every man in this book was a sexual predator. Polygamy is fine! Harem and marriage politics can be super interesting. This is just all about male sexual predators. It's really horrific at times. Categorizing this as "romance" is sociopathic. It's really scary from a historical perspective to think that this type of predation, grooming, assault, etc was the typical experience for aristocratic women and girls. Not that consensual experiences cannot exist, but they didn't seem to appear on these pages. It could partly be attributed to customs of modesty shaping how women were allowed to react to/in "romantic" situations (they needed to act unwilling or uninterested to preserve their reputation even if they were interested) but Shikibu's female characters aren't granted any agency or interiority to express that, if true.

Genji and the following iterations of Genji-ish men were all dull as hell. How much can you read about men described as perfect and flawless and stunningly handsome and gifted at everything they pick up? I'm reading The Confessions of Lady Nijo to contrast and her perspective is so much more interesting.

Lastly, here is a list of all the common threads of this book:
-Chasing women (often of very young ages)
-Crying, weeping, soaking their sleeves with tears
-Dying unexpectedly at very young ages (“not long for this world”) of broken hearts or general listlessness
-Sneaking off places to stalk women who aren’t interested in them
-Writing poetry and playing instruments until late in the night
-Going to the mountains
-Dreaming of becoming monks (and nuns) / "leaving the world" but almost never following through (except Ukifune)
-Pulling back curtains on verandas or peeping in windows to approach women (often of very young ages) unawares to look at them or touch them or literally rape them
-Being gorgeous and accomplished men and women who look gorgeous even crying mourning singing praying hosting etc (and its all anyone ever talks about)

Sorry for the rant. lmao

jn0el's review against another edition

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1.0

Genji Monogatari (penned by Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early eleventh century, around the peak of the Heian Period) is sometimes called the world's first novel, the first modern novel. I wanted to like it based on those two facts. However, sex without consent was a social norm during the Heian Period, and I found that reading of these encounters was truly disturbing.

revellee's review against another edition

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2.0

I hesitate to give this book an unfavorable review because of its literary significance, but... It's a pretty lackluster story with a reprehensible main character. The wonderful and faultless Genji basically rapes his way through all the ladies of the court who in some way remind him of his mother and stepmother. He even fathers a kid with his stepmother. He is so awful to his wife yet in the eyes of the narrator redeems himself because he realizes how great she was after she dies in childbirth and thus vows to take extra special care of his child. He also kidnaps a young girl who he "molds" into his ideal concubine and forces himself on her when she's a bit older, but still really a child who thought of him as a father. Ugh. I know this is a story about a guy in the 11th century, but that doesn't make his treatment of women okay.
I did find the way everyone interacted through hand written poetic notes pretty interesting and the superstitions and religious ceremonies described are an interesting look into this time.

pero_tefi's review against another edition

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3.0

it would have been a 2 if it weren't for its history. Cause look, its very accurate i imagine, of the times it was written, if you search the reviews theres someone that gave it 5 stars that explains how actually amazing the existence of this book is, and I get, cause a woman wrote it in the times beowulf was written, cause its the odysseus or ulysses type of classic but for Japanese, and its was done by a woman. So yeah, it gets a whole ass 4 if it were just for history.

But heres the thing, I couldn't even finish, cause I couldn't quite understand the writing, maybe cause im dumb, but this is my opinion. I do think japanese culture is incredibly interesting, and I could have continued reading this just for that reason and it truly pains me to choose the stop. But in all honesty the topics here don't quite interest me, it involves rape, it involves a bit of pedophilia, forgivable in the time it was written, but not now. It involves the dynamic of high class and low class japan, royalty and servants, and the women seen as some sort of collection. So, I've decided to stop, cause I'm not forced to learn everything about ancient japan, and I think I can use my time in vacation to read much more enjoyable books for ME. I'll probably read it some other time, but ultimately, I'm done, I wanna read fun stuff, it will be probably years before I try again.

REMEMBER IM SAYING THIS IS FULL OF ACCURATE INFORMATION CAUSE IT WAS LITERALLY WRITTEN IN TIMES THINGS WERE LIKE THIS I JUST DECIDED I DONT WANNA READ THIS HEAVY STUFF WITH EVENTS IM NOT OKAY WITH RIGHT NOW. okay done

colorfulleo92's review against another edition

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3.0

I think I've read the abridge version of this as it didn't have as much pages as stated here. Found it rather difficult to get into but after a while I got used to the writing. Don't know if it was because novels was a very new thing when this was written or it was because the translation, but it feelt rather cluncky at some parts overly wordy. But it was an alright story. Decent for being so old. I'm glad I read it.

musicdeepdive's review against another edition

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4.0

I'd feel dirty if I recommended folks read an abridged version of this, but fact is: the complete version is a slog to anyone adjusted to modern ideas of pacing. 1100 or so pages of dialogue and situations that seem pulled straight out of a Downton Abbey-esque drama in terms of how insignificant they are in the grand scheme of things, yet how significant they *must* be because the story is about royalty. Historical importance does mean a lot, yes, and a lot of the writing is good in this translation - just set your expectations appropriately is all I ask.