The little white attic

In the introduction of The Pillow Book , Meredith McKinney quotes Murasaki Shikibu’s lines about her in her diary:  “Sei Shonagon… was d...

See my earlier blog post about reading women .  1/ With the plan of reading more books by women this year, so far I have read:  - Edith...

- 10 favourite novels (updated):  The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu  Anna Karenina by Lev Tolstoy War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy M...

Me being featured at The Common Breath : talking about Jane Austen, Murasaki Shikibu, Lev Tolstoy, Edith Wharton, Nguyễn Du, and some other...

1/ I’ve been reading The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon (translated by Meredith McKinney), which I think would be a great companion piece to Th...

Did you expect my previous blog post to be my last post on The Tale of Genji ?  I’ve just got Royall Tyler’s book of essays on the novel, c...

1/ As chapter 53 reveals, Ukifune survives. But as she finds refuge among the nuns in the village, she finds herself harassed by the Captain...

1/ Niou and Kaoru both drive Ukifune to suicide. It is undeniable that Niou is the one who starts the trouble as he pursues her with animali...

1/ The Tale of Genji depicts the Japanese court, so it’s a world of culture, refinement, sensitivity, and elegance. But once in a while Mur...

1/ As Niou (the Third Prince) moves Naka no Kimi from Uji to court in chapter 48, I couldn’t help feeling curious and googling the distance—...