The Learning Umbrella

Chugging along on my reading challenge, I’ve just “finished” The Tale of Genji.  I didn’t really finish it - I only read 3oo pages of the 1100+ pages.  But, as I like to say, I’m finished with it.  I did like it, but after a while the incidents started to get repetitive.  Basically, Genji is an ancient Japanese version of Casanova, chasing after women all the time, climbing into bedroom windows, and generally walking a fine line of getting in trouble.

The characters speak to each other in poetry a lot, which is different and sometimes very meaningful.  The customs and lifestyles that are depicted are fascinating also.  This is a very old book, probably finished around 1021, and it is sometimes called “the first novel”.  It really does deserve to be included in the list of Great Books, along with the Western classics.  If you want to read some of it, it is one of the books Google has available for online reading.

There are some fairly shocking things in the book, with what I would consider a rape, a sudden death (possibly caused by an evil spirit that fell in love with Genji?), and his fixation on and abduction of a 10 year old girl (!).  That’s on top of all the infidelity, of course.  But I would still recommend that adults read at least excerpts.