The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan (Kodansha Globe Series) Book

The Tale of Genji is a contender for World's First Novel, a contest that will never be settled because "novel" is sortof a subjective term and who cares, but Genji was written around 1000 CE which is a very long time ago indeed. It's super good, read it, and the thing is that Japan in 1000 CE was balls weird. So you're going to need some explanation of it, and what will you do, friend?

Honestly, look, you're going to read the introduction in whatever edition of Genji you pick, that'll do it, you don't really need a whole book. You almost never need a whole book. You know what you do when you want to know more about something? See if someone wrote a New Yorker article about it. (They did.)

If you want a whole shitload more, though, here it is, in the consensus best nonfiction book about the World of Genji. Does it contain spoilers? Yes. I mean, I don't feel like Genji is one of those books that's hurt a great deal by knowing the plot, but I don't know how you feel about shit like this. It's thoroughly spoiled. The other book that gets a lot of play is The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagan, which I haven't read.

Anyway I mentioned that right around 1000 CE when this book was written, over in Europe someone was coming up with Beowulf, and it would be 100% accurate in every way to say that the Heian Period in Japan is basically Beowulf except with poetry instead of swords. Its closest analogue in Western Civ is, I don't know, maybe the 1700s - Dangerous Liaisons is a fair comparison, with all its letters and intrigues and its many fuckings. What will you learn in this book that hasn't been covered by my last two amazing sentences?

You'll learn about the Fujiwara, who were sorta the Medicis of Japan. Genji's buddy To No Chujo is a Fujiwara. You'll learn that Japan at the time was basically just China's hick cousin, always less civilized and impressive and constantly ripping off all their cool styles. There's lots and lots of other stuff, yeah - I mean, look, this was a super interesting time. It's cool to learn about. I was so interested that I wanted to know way more about it. Even more, believe it or not, than I could get out of a New Yorker article.