Music in "The Tale of Genji"

The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari) is a novel in six books, written during the first decades of the tenth century by Lady Murasaki, a Japanese noblewoman. Dealing with the life and times of a certain fictional Prince Genji, the novel is one of the great works of Japanese literature; its characters are presented with such forcefullness and skill, however, that it easily transcends the barriers of time and culture to cecome a member of that comparatively small group of works which are truly world-literature.