A review by jtniehof
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu

4.0

This was a read,the project of two months. Biblical in scope and textual difficulty. I can see where it could be consuming: despite the difficulty in a simple read-through there's something quite charming, and with commentaries and keeping notes on relationships and putting a lot of work in, it seems a lot could be unlocked. It really does end mid-sentence. The treatment of women is pretty much what one might expect even from a caricature of the tenth/eleventh century: polygamy's one thing, the casual rape and child marriage (non-platonic!) is another.