The Tale of Genji, Volume 1 cover art

The Tale of Genji, Volume 1

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About this listen

Murasaki Shikibu, born into the middle ranks of the aristocracy during the Heian period (794-1185 CE), wrote The Tale of Genji, widely considered the world's first novel, during the early years of the 11th century. Expansive, compelling, and sophisticated in its representation of ethical concerns and aesthetic ideals, Murasaki's tale came to occupy a central place in Japan's remarkable history of artistic achievement and is now recognized as a masterpiece of world literature.

The Tale of Genji is presented here in a flowing new translation for contemporary listeners, who will discover in its depiction of the culture of the imperial court the rich complexity of human experience that simultaneously resonates with and challenges their own. Washburn embeds annotations for accessibility and clarity and renders the poetry into triplets to create prosodic analogues of the original.

©2015 Dennis Washburn (translation) (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction China
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Amazing piece of literature given how long ago it was written and a fascinating view into another culture from a distance of a thousand years.
Narration was perfect for this, even if some English pronunciations were slightly unusual.

Oh Genji, keep it in your pants!

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Unlike some other translations (Royall Tyler’s in particular) this one puts a lot of explanation into the main text. It makes it easier to understand what’s happening, but also harder to appreciate the beautiful writing. Moments like the start of chapter 15, which are so carefully structured to slowly reveal the state of the hitachi princess’s life are clogged up with small explanations here and there. It’s still genji, but with a little less zing to it than other versions

Beautiful, but bloated

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What I love about this book is that it is so non linear, the heroes are morally grey and the book is the first case of the anti hero. When I listen to this it makes me think, why did she write this? There are many valuable secrets within this book and Brian nishi is a great narrator, if you enjoy the dream of the red chamber, the Chinese prose fiction master piece of an almost similar length, you will love this :)

Birth of prose fiction

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I was reading a biography where the subject had read Genji and as I’d never heard of it I looked it up. It’s a mammoth listen, and you have to pay attention to keep track, especially if the women. There are also points where you really don’t like the main character and I questioned why I was still listening, but continued anyway.

It’s a very different style where time is treated inconsistently, sometimes days take ages to describe and then suddenly it jumps and something really important has been skipped (I thought I’d skipped a chapter so re listened but I hadn’t), but that’s part of the charm.

I think it’s read really well, I thought I’d tire of the narrator after 35 hours but he was also compelling.

A couple of things to note, the chapters don’t seem to tie in at all with the chapters in the book. Also, I found it better to listen to the introduction and explanation at the end as it felt a bit overwhelming before I’d even started listening to the story.

Also, at done point I found Genji’s family tree online. I don’t recommend you look at it too early as it will contain spoilers, but once you’re well into the story it’s quite useful to get your head around some of the relationships.

Not my usual listen at all but would thoroughly recommend it. It’s not a passive listen.

Compelling listening

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A thousand-year-old masterpiece does not need too much introduction. The reason of review is to state 2 things (1) this is the BEST translation (2) Brian Nishii is the BEST voice artist. Please Mr. Nishii, read us more Japanese literature!

Beginning of World Literature

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