Dennis Washburn, ed. & trans.: The Tale of Genji: Norton Critical Edition (2021)•
Dennis Washburn (2011)The Tale of Genji: Norton Critical Edition (2021)
[Fishpond.co.nz - ordered: October 23 / received: November 10, 2021]:
Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji: Norton Critical Edition. Ed. & trans. Dennis Washburn. 2015. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2021.
Some time ago now, in 2013, I wrote a blogpost about the Japanese monogatari tradition.
Since then I've made a few more significant acquisitions, and have been accused by no less an authority than my friend and colleague Jo Emeney, who studied Japanese at Cambridge University with Richard Bowring and Ivan Morris, translators (respectively) of Lady Murasaki's Diary and The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, of being a complete Tale of Genji 'fangirl'.
I'm forced to acknowledge the truth of her comment. I am, indeed, a Murasaki fangirl, though I might have chosen a slightly different appellation for this state of swooning adoration of all things Genji.
Reading The Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium.Ed. Thomas Harper & Haruo Shirane (2015)
The above, for instance, which I acquired a couple of months after the hardback edition of Dennis Washburn's translation, is a most interesting work. What may seem - to us - the extreme perversity of some of the early readings of the Genji goes someway towards underlining the sheer weight of time between us and its author.
While it's tempting to construct a Lady Murasaki according to our own understanding of such a 'literary figure' - a kind of Japanese Virginia Woolf avant la lettre - it's misleading to do so. If we're to have any chance of reading the Genji at all, as opposed to the Proustian pastiche created by its first translator, Arthur Waley, we'd better pay at least as much attention to the gaps as the continuities in the thousand-year-old tradition of trying to fathom this, the first and greatest of all psychological novels.
There are, now, four complete translations of the Genji into English - as well as a number of abridged and partial versions, ranging through the partial Suematsu translation of 1882, Helen McCullough's abridged version of 1994, Kazuyuki Hijiya's translation of the last ten 'Uji' chapters of 2013, and now Melissa McCormick's English version of the 1510 Genji Album, the oldest set of Genji illustrations known to exist.
Of course, it's most important to chart the 'big four' - the four attempts to date at a complete translation of the novel (although Waley's pioneering version does, admittedly, omit one whole chapter, no. 38: 'The Bell Cricket'). Lucy Day W. has made an excellent summary of their respective advantages and disadvantages in her article "What’s the best translation of The Tale of Genji?" (20/3/21) on the welovetranslations.com website, so there doesn't seem much point in repeating all that here.
I do have my own views on the matter, mind you, but for the main part I'd prefer just to illustrate the various choices: the iconography of Genji translation, if you like:
Here they all are, then, in (approximate) chronological order:
- Suematsu Kenchō (1882)
- Arthur Waley (1925-33)
- Edward Seidensticker (1976)
- Yoshitaka Amano (1976)
- Richard Bowring (1982)
- Helen McCullough (1994)
- Liza Dalby (2000)
- Royall Tyler (2001)
- Kazuyuki Hijiya (2013)
- Dennis Washburn (2015)
- Hideo Furukawa (2016)
- Melissa McCormick (2018)
- Sean Michael Wilson (2022)
- Bibliography
Kenchio Suyematz, trans. Genji Monogatari: The Most Celebrated of the Classical Japanese Romances. London: Trubner, 1882.
There's an excellent review of this translation on Tony's Reading List (9/8/2021):
Suematsu had only been in the UK a matter of years before producing his translation, and the fact that it reads fluently is a phenomenal achievement in its own right. Of course, the style is very much influenced by Victorian literature, and you could be forgiven for mistaking it for a lesser-known English-language classicThere are, admittedly, a few eccentricities to deal with - his treatment of the numerous poems in the text, for instance:
Suematsu opts to convert the Waka poetry into four-line rhyming poems (usually ABAB, sometimes AABB). Take this effort, from ‘Hahakigi’:Its two greatest deficiencies are fairly obvious. First of all, it's incomplete: "this translation includes a mere seventeen of the canonical fifty-four chapters ... Those wanting to know what happens next will have to go elsewhere for closure."I had a dream, a dream so sweet, Ah! would that I could dream again; Alas, no sleep these eyes will greet, And so I strive to dream in vain!
Secondly, there is "Suematsu’s tendency to omit, or tidy up. In his introduction he admits":
In translating I have cut out several passages which appeared superfluous, though nothing has been added to the original.So, to summarise:
The Suematsu Genji isn’t really one for readers wanting the full story, but it makes for a nice introduction for those with no time or inclination to read over a thousand pages of amorous exploits ...
Lady Murasaki. The Tale of Genji: A Novel in Six Parts. Trans. Arthur Waley. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1935.
- The Tale of Genji (1925)
- The Sacred Tree (1926)
- A Wreath of Cloud (1927)
- Blue Trousers (1928)
- The Lady of the Boat (1932)
- The Bridge of Dreams (1933)
What can I say about Arthur Waley? Not only did he first bring the novel to the attention of English-speaking readers everywhere, but he also alerted many Japanese, uncomfortable with the archaic language of the original, to the importance of Lady Murasaki in world literature.
His version is still very readable, despite changing fashions in just how many concessions need to be made for a contemporary Western audience. Perhaps it's just we've just spent a lot more time with Japanese culture since then. Nevertheless, if you're keen on the Genji and haven't read Waley's version, you're denying yourself a treat.
Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Edward Seidensticker. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.
This is where I came in. Ever since I first saw - and immediately bought - the massive Penguin paperback of Seidensticker's Genji in 1981, in St. Andrews, Scotland (and very inconvenient it was to cart it round with me for the next six weeks or so on our European family holiday), I've been reading in and around and through it, in an attempt to penetrate its obscurities.
While it appealed to me most, initially, as an aesthetic object, I have to say that I still get a kick from Seidensticker's sparse, allusive prose - as well as his excellent versions of the many, many poems included in the text. All those years spent translating Kawabata and Mishima and other modern Japanese novelists were a great assistance to him in finding a tone calculated to appeal to aficionados of that type of writing.
It has been criticised, since (mainly by rival translators), for its lack of explanatory notes and appendices and all those other contextualising gestures beloved of scholars. Seidensticker had the soul of a poet, though, and it's a shame if his version, which I would think is by far the most accessible to the general reader of the four now in existence, has fallen into eclipse.
Yoshitaka Amano. The Tale of Genji. 1976. Trans. Anri Itō, with Rachel Nacth. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2006.
The summary on Goodreads runs as follows:
Yoshitaka Amano has been praised around the world for his lush watercolors and evocative work dealing with myth and legend. In The Tale of Genji Mr. Amano brings his considerable talent to retelling one of the most famous of Japanese myths: written by Murasaki Shikibu shortly after 1000 AD and considered by most scholars to be the first novel ever written, The Tale of Genji is the story of the romantic adventures of Genji, the amazingly handsome prince and his many romantic conquests. Told through stunning paintings, Mr. Amano brings this classic story to life for a new generation.The reviewer on Wonderland Press is a little more critical:
I had high hopes for this book; I loved the art in [Neil Gaiman's] The Dream Hunters. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. Maybe it’s because I haven’t finished the original Tale of Genji, but it seems pointless, meaningless. Naked, gracefully drawn people, their genitalia covered by luxurious robes, lounge around and look pitiful.
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Richard Bowring, trans. Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs (1982)
Richard Bowring
(1947- )
(1947- )
Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs. Trans. Richard Bowring. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982.
The summary on Goodreads runs as follows:
In addition to The Tale of Genji, Murasaki also wrote The Diary of Lady Murasaki [Murasaki Shikibu Nikki], a work of non-fiction that offers unique glimpses into the daily life of the court and her own thoughts and experiences. Unlike her fiction, her diary is often introspective and frank, providing invaluable context for understanding Heian society, the role of women, and the tensions she faced as both a court insider and a perceptive, occasionally critical observer of her surroundings.The comment below says it all, I think:
I practically memorized every inch of this book.
Helen Craig McCullough, trans. Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike. Stanford University Press, 1994.
This one-volume selection from the Genji and the Heike appears to have been intended mostly for classroom purposes:
Often called the world's earliest novel, The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, is a poetic evocation of aristocratic life in eleventh-century Japan, a period of brilliant cultural efflorescence. This new translation focuses on important events in the life of its main character, Genji. It traces the full length of Genji's relationship with Murasaki, the deepest and most enduring of his emotional attachments, and contains all or parts of 10 of the 41 chapters in which Genji figures, including the "Broom Tree" chapter, which provides a reprise of the themes of the book.
In romanticized but essentially truthful fashion, The Tale of the Heike describes the late twelfth-century political intrigues and battlefield clashes that led to the eclipse of the Kyoto court and the establishment of a military government by the rival Minamotho (Genji) clan. Its underlying theme, the evanescence of worldly things, echoes some of the concerns of the Genji, but its language preserves many traces of oral composition, and its vigor and expansivelness contrast sharply with the pensive, elegant tone of the Genji. The selections of the Heike, about 40 percent of the work, are taken from the translator's complete edition ...
Liza Dalby. The Tale of Murasaki. 2000. London: Vintage, 2001.
I did enjoy Liza Dalby's weirdly compelling, though somewhat mawkish at times, Tale of Murasaki:
Dalby stated her decision to write a fictional account of Murasaki's life was driven by the fact that she "couldn't contribute anything scholarly". Fascinated by an 11th century Heian period court culture oriented for the most part around poetic art and literature reflecting the natural world, Dalby wove much of it into the book, writing about the clothing the women wore; the love affairs they had; the manner in which poetry was frequently exchanged; and the seclusion of women within the Heian period court, where they were often seen by men behind screens, their faces unseen by lovers.One of the Goodreads comments asks:- Wikipedia: Liza Dalby
Why is Lady Muraski is an interesting subject? She was the first novelist, a woman who stood out among even the (much more highly educated) men of her era for her erudition a quick wit - a highly valued skill at court and one she mastered was the ability to compose a tanka on the spot to commemorate an occasion or even a fleeting moment - and she was in an elite circle of court ladies ... The travails of life as a woman in an earlier, repressed age; the burdens of court life with its gossip, intrigues and ambitious jostling for position; relationships among women as well as love and friendship in a culture that demanded that men and women be essentially separated by a screen at nearly all times; life in a highly cultivated, highly stylized age that is extremely unlike anything we know in the west today ... all this makes for a fascinating read. You don't have to have pre-existing knowledge of Heian Japan to appreciate the book. But if you do, you may appreciate its author even more.In general, the online response to the book seems to be very good.
Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Royall Tyler. 2 vols. New York: Viking, 2001.
I certainly approve in principle of most of Royall Tyler's translation strategies for the Genji. I just wish that the result read more like a novel and less like an annotated crib. Anyone seriously interested in the subject, though, cannot possibly ignore the massive rethinking of the whole subject contributed by this version and its attendant commentaries.
Expertise in medieval Japanese language and culture is seldom accompanied by supreme literary talent, unfortunately. Waley and (to some extent) Seidensticker made up for this fact with the breadth of their cultural sympathies - as evidenced by the latter's charming (though, at time, somewhat irascible) translator's diary, Genji Days (1977).
Royall Tyler has translated Japanese Nō Plays, folktales and a range of other texts, together with The Tale of the Heike. He's certainly a very accomplished writer. And yet, perhaps, in the final analysis, it takes a poet to translate the Genji convincingly. We may still be waiting for that version.
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Kazuyuki Hijiya, trans. The Tale of Genji: The Uji Chapters, Part I (2013)
Kazuyuki Hijiya
(1936- )
(1936- )
Kazuyuki Hijiya, trans. The Tale of Genji: The Uji Chapters. 2 vols. Kyoto: Yamaguchi Shoten, 2013.
The translator introduces his own work as follows:
I eagerly hope that this book will be read by Japanese high school and university students as well. It is often mentioned that their reading skills need to be enhanced, as these skills are critical for building up other abilities such as speaking and writing. It would be my greatest pleasure if I could provide an opportunity through the classic Japanese novel The Tale of Genji, which nearly every Japanese person must have heard at least once in their lives, for these students to experience the joy of reading in English, and eventually learn how to interpret their own culture so as to make it accessible to foreigners.The amazon.com write-up makes some questionable claims about the genesis of this last section of Murasaki Shikibu's great work - but it's a laudable effort even so.
After a hiatus of several years, Murasaki Shikibu returned to her epic work The Tale of Genji to write the ten final chapters known collectively as Uji Jyuujou [The Uji Chapters]. In Part 1, containing the first six of these chapters, the readers are transported to the environs of Kyoto, to a small town called Uji. Here, Murasaki Shikibu follows the fortunes of an ostracized prince and his daughters, a young captain, and the second in line to the throne. In Part 2, Murasaki Shikibu delves into the romantic entanglements involving Ukifune and her two suitors, Prince Niou and Commander Kaoru. As it is suspected that Murasaki Shikibu herself had become a nun before writing these final chapters, it is not surprising that religion finally began to play a significant role in the narrative. Sadly, however, this volume also contains the final instalment in Murasaki's epic masterpiece.Edward Seidensticker, too, originally intended to translate only this final section of the Genji, but (thankfully) eventuallly decided to undertake the entire work.
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Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji. Trans. Dennis Washburn (2015)
Dennis Charles Washburn
(1954- )
(1954- )
Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Dennis Washburn. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2015.
Interestingly enough, this, the most recent of the four translations - note the diminishing gaps of time between them:
1933-1976: 43 years between Waley & Seidensticker- got the biggest drubbing to date from reviewers.
1976-2001: 25 years between Seidensticker & Tyler
2001-2015: 14 years between Tyler & Washburn
Lucy Day W summarises their strictures as follows:
It is considered verbose as explanations are typically inserted into the text. You can see the difference in the length of [my] extract from Chapter 1 (according to my count, Washburn uses 569 words, Tyler uses 347).She concludes:
If you feel strongly that a translation should be as literal as possible within the constraints of the grammar and vocabulary of the target language, you will be horrified at the extent to which Washburn departs from the source material, and you shouldn’t read Waley either. Waley made the text sound archaically Western; Washburn makes it sound too modern.I can't really comment myself as I haven't (yet) made much progress in reading his version. After a chapter or two, I found the anachronistic nature of his style a bit too much to swallow when rereading a book which has meant so much to me over the years.
Arguably, though, whatever the text loses in terms of subtle style, it gains in readability in Washburn’s hands. If you want to pretend that you are reading a contemporary novel, and not a book painstakingly handed down through the ages and presented to you by scholars eager to signpost all their research, knowledge, and guesswork, this is the translation for you.
I don't despair of it, though. That's my main reason for buying Washburn's Norton Critical Edition of the novel, with its apparatus of notes and other critical materials. I mustn't let my sneaking love of Japonaiserie overcome my desire to experience as many approaches to Murasaki's great original as possible (for a non-Japanese speaker, that is).
Hideo Furukawa. Onnatachi Sanbyaku-nin no Uragiri no Sho [The Book of the Betrayals of 300 Women]. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 2015.
Described as a "book of linked short stories", Hideo Furukawa's Book of the Betrayals of 300 Women is not a conventional retelling of the Genji. The conceit of his book concerns the return of Murasaki Shikibu, the original author, as "an avenging spirit to dictate the 'true' Uji Chapters, leading to a massive conflict and betrayal among 300 women." The author notes that the story "logically connects the Uji Chapters of Genji directly to The Tale of the Heike."
The work was well reviewed, winning the Noma Literary New Face Prize and the Yomiuri Prize for Fiction.
Melissa McCormick. The Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.
McCormick introduces her work as follows:
In the year 1510, at a private residence in the capital city of Kyoto, two men raised their wine cups to celebrate the completion of an extraordinary project, an album of fifty-four pairs of calligraphy and painting leaves representing each chapter of Japan’s most celebrated work of fiction, The Tale of Genji.Tony's Reading List comments:
Fortunately for those of us who ... might find it tricky to fit in a visit [to the Harvard Art Museums] over the weekend, McCormick’s book brings the album to us, and more besides. After her insightful introduction, she takes us through the album, chapter by chapter, and a wonderful experience it is, too, as we get to explore the chosen images and the text accompanying them.He goes on:
Interestingly, the structure of the album provides for one image for each chapter, meaning there were some tough decisions for its creators to make. Some images are fairly famous and make for obvious choices (such as the stupendous clash of the carriages for ‘Aoi’, or Genji’s kaimami voyeurism in ‘Wakamurasaki’), but the image chosen isn’t always the one you might expect. For example, in ‘Yūgao’, rather than having scary scenes at the haunted house, we see Genji and his young lover spending a leisurely morning together back at her house, while the selection for ‘Suma’ has the Gosechi Dancer’s boat passing by our hero’s home from home. It just goes to show how hard it is at times to summarise each chapter in just one scene.Clearly a must-have: So I'm glad that I do.
Sean Michael Wilson. Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji: The Manga Edition. Illustrated by Inko Ai Takita. Tuttle Japanese Classics in Manga. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 2022.
Manga review sums it up as follows:
... if you’re wanting to get a taste of a classic Japanese literary work, this manga is a good place to start. If you’re out for casual reading, maybe not so much ... the story structure is quite different from modern works. The book begins with Genji’s birth, ends with his death, and the content in between mostly chronicles his escapades with various women. If I had to characterize it, I’d call it a historical harem. The Japanese Imperial court setting, Genji’s charm, and the poetic language give it a romantic aura, but when it comes down to simple actions, Genji’s simply determined to sleep with whoever’s caught his eye.
... By modern standards, his behavior is appalling, if not illegal. Even by Heian-era standards, Genji’s behavior got him into trouble privately and publicly ... While the drawings, backgrounds, and poetic exchanges lend the story an elegance befitting the Japanese Imperial court, keep in mind that the focus is Prince Genji’s womanizing escapades, which are more befitting of an alley cat.
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There's a poem-sequence based on the Genji by expatriate New Zealand writer Mark Young; there are many commentaries, and chapter-by-chapter summaries - not to mention editions of her other great work, the Diary.
As well as that, there's an ever-growing library of translations of other classic works of Heian Japanese literature - whether one approaches them as illustrative of the Genji, or as masterpieces in their own right.
In short, the picture looks far more rosy now than it did forty years ago, when I first started reading the novel ... for Genjiomanes, at least. Long may this - hopefully life-enhancing rather than cliché-affirming - cultural exchange continue!
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Suzuki Harunobu: Five Cardinal Virtues: Murasaki Shikibu as 'Fidelity' (c.1767)
Murasaki Shikibu
[Lady Murasaki]
(c.973-c.1014/25)
[Lady Murasaki]
(c.973-c.1014/25)
Books I own are marked in bold:
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Translations of the Genji:
- Lady Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Arthur Waley. 6 vols. 1925-33 (1935)
- Lady Murasaki. The Tale of Genji: A Novel in Six Parts. Trans. Arthur Waley. 1935. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1957.
- Lady Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. A Novel in Six Parts: The Tale of Genji, The Sacred Tree, A Wreath of Cloud, Blue Trousers, The Lady of the Boat, The Bridge of Dreams. Trans. Arthur Waley. 1935. New York: The Modern Library, 1960.
- Lady Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Athur Waley. 1935. 2 vols. Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1970.
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Edward Seidensticker. 2 vols (1976)
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Edward Seidensticker. 1976. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Edward Seidensticker. 1976. 2 vols. Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1997.
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. & abridged Edward Seidensticker. 1985. Vintage Classics. New York: Random House, Inc., 1990.
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Royall Tyler. 2 vols (2001)
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Royall Tyler. 2 vols. New York: Viking, 2001.
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Royall Tyler. 2001. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2003.
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Dennis Washburn (2015)
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Dennis Washburn. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2015.
- Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. & abridged Dennis Washburn. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2016.
- Murasaki Shikibu. Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs. Trans. Richard Bowring (1982)
- Included in: Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan: The Sarashina Diary; Diary of Murasaki Shikibu & Diary of Izumi Shikibu. Trans. Annie Shepley Omori & Kochi Doi. Introduction by Amy Lowell. 1935. Tokyo: Kenkyushu Ltd., 1961.
- Murasaki Shikibu: Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs. Trans. Richard Bowring. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982.
- The Diary of Lady Murasaki. Trans. Richard Bowring. 1982. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996.
- Ochikubo Monogatari [The Tale of Ochikubo] (c.965)
- Ochikubo Monogatari: The Tale of the Lady Ochikubo. A Tenth-Century Japanese Novel. Trans. Wilfrid Whitehouse & Eizo Yanagisawa. 1934. London: Arena, 1985.
- Kagerō Nikki [The Gossamer Diary] (c.974)
- The Gossamer Years (Kagerō Nikki): The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan. Trans. Edward Seidensticker. 1964. Tokyo & Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1981.
- The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon (c. 1002)
- The Pillow-Book of Sei Shōnagon. Trans. Arthur Waley. 1928. Unwin Books. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1960.
- The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon: Introduction & Translation. vol. 1 of 2. Trans. Ivan Morris. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.
- Morris, Ivan, trans. The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon: A Companion Volume. vol. 2 of 2. Trans. Ivan Morris. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.
- The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon. 1967. Trans. Ivan Morris. Abridged Ed. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
- The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon. Trans. Ivan Morris. Introduction by Robin Duke. Illustrations by Jasper Deane. 1979. London: The Folio Society, 1980.
- Sei Shōnagon. The Pillow Book. Trans. Meredith McKinney. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2006.
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki [The Diary of Izumi Shikibu] (c.1002-3)
- Included in: Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan: The Sarashina Diary; Diary of Murasaki Shikibu & Diary of Izumi Shikibu. Trans. Annie Shepley Omori & Kochi Doi. Introduction by Amy Lowell. 1935. Tokyo: Kenkyushu Ltd., 1961.
- Sarashina Nikki [The Sarashina Diary] (c.1058)
- Included in: Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan: The Sarashina Diary; Diary of Murasaki Shikibu & Diary of Izumi Shikibu. Trans. Annie Shepley Omori & Kochi Doi. Introduction by Amy Lowell. 1935. Tokyo: Kenkyushu Ltd., 1961.
- As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in Eleventh Century Japan. Trans. Ivan Morris. 1971. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
- Bowring, Richard. Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji. Landmarks of World Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
- Dalby, Liza. The Tale of Murasaki. 2000. London: Vintage, 2001.
- Harper, Thomas, & Haruo Shirane, ed. Reading The Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.
- Carpenter, John, & Melissa McCormick. The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019.
- Furukawa Hideo. Onnatachi Sanbyaku-nin no Uragiri no Sho ["The Book of the Betrayals of 300 Women"]. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 2015.
- McCormick, Melissa. The Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion. 1510. Princeton & London: Princeton University Press, 2018.
- Morris, Ivan. The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan. 1964. Peregrine Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.
- Seidensticker, Edward G. Genji Days. Tokyo & New York: Kodansha International Ltd., 1977.
- Seidensticker, Edward G. Genji Days. 1977. Tokyo & New York: Kodansha International Ltd., 1983.
- Tyler, Royall. A Reading of The Tale of Genji. NSW: Blue-Tongue Books, 2016.
- Wilson, Sean Michael. Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji: The Manga Edition. Illustrated by Inko Ai Takita. Tuttle Japanese Classics in Manga. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 2022.
- Yoshitaka Amano. The Tale of Genji. 1976. Trans. Rachel Nacth & Anri Itō. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2006.
- Young, Mark. Genji Monogatari. Rockhampton, Queensland: Otoliths, 2010.
Diary:
Cognate Works:
Secondary & Miscellaneous:
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- category - Japanese Literature: Prose: Classical
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