The Tale of Genji
Murasaki Shikibu · 973 CE–1014 · Japan
Originally Genji Monogatari (Japanese) · translated by Royall Tyler
Why it matters
A prince's decades of love affairs and political rise eventually give way to his descendants' more melancholic, diminished lives. Widely called the world's first novel: psychological interiority a thousand years before the form had a name for it.
At a glance
psychological novelromance
Difficulty 8/10slow pace1216 pagesA vast court cast referred to by shifting titles rather than names, plus dense poem-exchanges, demand real patience.
Deep dive
Why one of this novel's most pivotal chapters survives only as a title with nothing written beneath it — and what a book obsessed with the ache of passing things gains by refusing to narrate its own biggest loss.
Where to go next
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