The Tale Of Genji: The Tale Of Genji; The Sacred Tree; A Wreath Of Cloud; Blue Trousers; The Lady Of The Boat; The Bridge Of Dreams. Translated From The Japanese By Arthur Waley [Complete In 6 Vols.] (Waley.) Murasaki (Lady [Shikibu]) Modern First Edition

FIRST EDITIONS, third volume with light paperclip mark at head of prelims, this and subsequent volume with a couple of marginal marks in pencil corresponding to page references at rear endpapers, fourth volume with a small amount of spotting to margins, pp. 300, [4, ads]; 304; 312; 333, [3, ads]; 309, [5, ads]; 341, [3, ads], 8vo, original dark blue or green cloth, backstrips lettered in gilt and very gently sunned on a few volumes, a couple of volumes with just a touch of wear at tips of backstrip, the fourth with slight bleed to cloth at centre of backstrip, a touch of rubbing to extremities, third and sixth volumes from the library of Cyril Tomkinson (ownership and gift inscription respectively), a very good set. Arthur Waley's translation of this eleventh-century Japanese novel, 'Genji monogatari', was a task and achievement comparable to Scott-Moncrieff's translation of Proust, and in a cultural sense more of a challenge. The earlier translation into English, by Suematsu Kench in 1882, was heavily abridged, and Waley's situation was an isolated one - without much in the way of existing models or scholarly commentaries to guide him in attempting to render the courtly vernacular of the Heian period. Even if Waley's work has been built upon and improved by subsequent translations, its reputation remains high and its significance - particularly in respect of forging an analogy between early Japanese and modern Western sensibilities as represented in the form of the novel - supreme.