![]() She kept a diary, which reports her arrival at court-thanks to both her connections and her talent-in 1005 or 1006. She married probably in 998 had a daughter was widowed in about 1001 and probably then began “Genji”. Until her marriage she perhaps lived in the province on the Japan Sea where her bureaucrat father had been appointed governor. She may have lived from around 975 to 1025. Little is certain about Murasaki Shikibu. In the late Heian era (893-1185), when the book is set, the ruling Fujiwara clan of upper-class commoners (to which Murasaki belonged) would send their daughters to court at Kyoto, hoping that one would give birth to a crown prince and ensure their control of the imperial power. He fathers at least one emperor and an empress. Genji's seduction of court women is also political opportunism. Murasaki's characters and their setting reflect the reality around her. The psychology of the characters is complex the central drama is their internal conflict,” says Haruo Shirane, professor of Japanese literature at Columbia University, in New York. Both works “explore memory and passing time. It has often been compared to Proust's “Remembrance of Things Past”. This long book is peopled by dozens of well-wrought characters, sophisticated figures in an aristocratic society that values celebrity and ambition. Today, “The Tale of Genji” is acknowledged as the world's first modern novel, and its writer, Murasaki Shikibu, not just as a pioneer but as one of enormous talent, not least in her use of irony.
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