The World of the Shining Prince is named for the central figure in The Tale of Genji, one of the world's greatest literary masterpieces, written by the eleventh-century Japanese genius, the court lady, Murasaki Shikibu. Morris's book is "about" neither the author nor her work, however, but rather deals with the cultural milieu that was the context for both. He has created here for Western readers a revelation of an age and a civilization--aristocratic life in Japan from about 950-1050 CE--"one of the most unusual and engaging patterns that the kaleidoscope of history has produced."
