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Author : Liza Crihfield Dalby
Hardcover : 426 pages
Publisher : Nan A. Talese
Language : English
ISBN : 0-385-49794-6
Special Limited Offer
Now available limited numbers of the pristine original hardcover editions,
personally signed by the author and stamped with custom made seals.
This edition is specially arranged for UZUSHOP.COM, and not available in other stores.
< Story from book cover
Out of the life and work of Lady Murasaki, the author of the world's first novel,
Liza Dalby has woven an exquisite and irresistible fiction that with rich, nuanced authenticity
and lyrical drama brings an elaborate past world to vivid life.
The sensitive and modest daughter of a mid-ranking court poet, Murasaki Shikibu staves off
loneliness with her active imagination, telling stories about the dashing Prince Genji
to her close friends. At first, they are their private entertainment,
but soon Genji's amorous adventures are leaked to the public and Murasaki is thrust
into the life of a kind of eleventh-century Japanese celebrity. She is compelled
by a charismatic regent to accept a position at court regaling the empress with her stories.
At court, Lady Murasaki becomes caught in a vortex of high politics and sexual intrigue,
which begins to reflect itself in her stories.
In this way, she comes to write her masterpiece, The Tale of Genji.But this is much more
than just an elegantly plotted historical novel. The tale of Murasaki is a beautiful work of
literary archaeology. Dalby, the only Westerner to have become a geisha and the author of
the definitive book Geisha, subtly reconstructs the fashions, sensibilities, manners, and
preoccupations of eleventh-century Japan. The result is a vivid portrait of a woman and her times,
the most splendid in Japanese history.
In The Tale of Murasaki Dalby transports her readers to an exotic world and time and wraps
them in a story that speaks clearly across the centuries. It is a dazzling literary achievement
and a truly unique and wonderful reading experience.
< Review
"The Tale of Murasaki brings vividly to life the fascinating eleventh-century world
of the creator of Japan's enduring masterpiece The Tale of Genji.
Liza Dalby is not just a remarkable scholar of Japan - she is a keen storyteller."
Arthur Golden, Aurhor of Memoirs of Geisha
Click Liza Dalby's webspace |
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