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context: literature > Heian
The Tale of Genji
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Genji Monogatari was written in the very early 11th Century by Murasaki Shikibu (c.973 to anything from 1014 to 1025). It's now over a thousand years old. It's been claimed as the first novel, the first psychological novel and the first great novel. It remains among the longer novels ever written. It tells of the adventures, mostly romantic and sexual, of Prince Genji. For a modern reader, it may not be hugely rewarding, due to its slow pace and oblique references to the characters, nor easy to read because some of its attitudes lean towards rape or even child abuse. It's pointless condemning a book a millenium old by modern standards, but it struck me as distasteful.
It nonetheless remains one of the cultural centres of Japan, read widely, and for a thousand years it has inspired art and other stories (including lots of porn versions!).