The Pillow Book
Penguin Classics · first published 1002 · 416 pages
A lady-in-waiting at the Heian court keeps a book of lists, scenes, opinions, and small observations.
Quick, witty, and sharply observed, it can be opened anywhere and read a few pages at a time.
For a night of short reading in bed.
About this book
Around the year 1000, Sei Shōnagon served the young empress Teishi at the imperial court in the capital, now Kyoto. In this book she gathers lists of things she finds charming or hateful, moments from court life, the turning seasons, and frank judgments on people and manners. Her tone is confident, funny, and at times sharp. What stays is a vivid, personal voice from a thousand years ago that still sounds close at hand.