Description
Author: Sei Shonagon
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 11/01/2007
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.66lbs
Size: 7.76h x 5.16w x 0.94d
ISBN13: 9780140448061
ISBN10: 0140448063
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Historical
- Literary Collections | Diaries & Journals
- History | Asia | Japan
About the Author
Sei Shonagon was born approximately a thousand years ago (965 is a likely date) and served as lady-in-waiting at the Court of the Japanese Empress during the last decade of the tenth century. Her father was a provincial official, but is best known as a poet and a scholar. It is possible, though unlikely, that Shonagon was briefly married to a government official, by whom she may have had a son. Her life after her Court service came to an end is totally obscure. There is a tradition that she died in lonely poverty: but this is probably an invention of moralists who were shocked by her promiscuity and thought she deserved retribution. Our knowledge of Shonagon's life and character rests almost exclusively on the Pillow Book itself.