Oedipus and Elvis would have paled in comparison to Prince Genji's adventures with innumerable women during his lifetime. He married Empresses, he fell in love with her aunt, she took her niece as his concubine, and his wife bore a son that later stole his lover. Why did
Lady Murasaki write this novel in the first place? It was intended to entertain the ladies in the Empress' court. No one would have thought it was going to be the most romantic work of genius ever written in Japanese history and the whole world.
