This edition comes with an introduction by Barbara Ruch, Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture, Columbia University, and Dr Morris' former student. In it she outlines changes in the approach to the relations between men and women in academia since the book's original publication in 1964, which in her view should be taken into account when reading some of Dr Morris' comments about 10th-century upper-class Japanese life.

According to Dr Morris' Preface the book was intended for the general reader. I haven't re-read The tale of Genji in its entirety for many years (not since the Waley translation burst on me like a bombshell immediately after WW II, in fact) and I found some difficulty in distinguishing between references to the "real" characters of the Japanese court and those of the novel. As an example of a society dominated in its upper reaches by aesthetic considerations it forms a fascinating contrast with our own, though we can see a parallel in English life of the early 20th century in which a small coterie was heavily involved with Diaghilev's Russian ballet and with the painters and writers of the Bloomsbury set. The almost daily letters between the great economist Keynes and the dancer Lopokova, for instance, though decidedly unpoetic have something of the same feeling of the man of affairs putting them aside to concentrate on his feelings for her.

The World of the Shining Prince Ivan Morris
This is an overview of Japan at the time Murasaki Shikibu wrote The Tale of Genji. It's not the most up-to-date book on early Japanese history and culture out there, but Morris is one of the great post-World War II writers on Japanese history and culture, and Genji is a special area of study for him. The world he writes about is one that is so very foreign to ours--not just foreign as modern Japan is to the modern United States, but so foreign we might as well be discussing a groups of aliens in a science fiction novel. Yet it's a fascinating world; although their habits and priorities were so very different from ours, it remains a fascination period, and one that was crucial in the development of Japanese culture, and Morris does a good job of covering the details of Genji's world.

A very excellent and richly detailed overview of court life in Japan’s Heian period approximately from the XVIII to the XII century which can serve as a companion to and is based on two novels, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book, written during the period by court ladies (who wrote in Japanese while the men were busying themselves writing in bad Chinese). This treatment of the period thoroughly portrays Court life in all its saucy and titillating details (gums blackened with charcoal to look sexy, midnight romps through the imperial compound, beatitude state and tears in response to something beautiful). Given the remoteness of the period, it is quite extraordinary that such material is available, although much of the information pertains exclusively to a restricted and elevated section of the population. I found this book to be utterly engrossing chiefly because it successfully depicts a human experience which is so foreign and removed from our own as to be barely comprehensible. ( )

A very perceptive, well-written look at the cultural life of Heian Japan, c. 900-1100 AD. This was a society obsessed with aesthetics, where the colors on the sleeve of one's kimono were minutely analyzed for the coded messages they conveyed, and where poetry was an essential element of daily life (at least among the ruling elite). Highly recommended if you're thinking about reading The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon or tackling Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji. ( )

"Using The Tale of Genji as a frame of reference, Dr. Ivan Morris outlines the political and social life, the religion and superstitions of the period, the everyday life of the court..."