In 996, her writings made the rounds of the Heian-era court-her account of this invasion of her privacy indicates that a government official, while visiting Shōnagon, spied the journal and made off with it, against Shōnagon’s wishes. Sei Shōnagon had kept a diary during her time as a court lady, noting the goings-on in an entertaining variety of anecdotes and gossip reflecting her daily involvement in court life. After the death of the empress, Shōnagon left the court. Because of her culturally significant family history, Shōnagon was seen as a desirable addition to Empress Teishi’s circle. Ultimately, Shōnagon and her husband, Tachibana Norimitsu, separated, and Shōnagon was taken into the service of an empress whose father was a powerful chancellor.

Her lineage included writers and scholars of some significance, and her father’s interest in securing Shōnagon a place at the court led to her marriage at the age of sixteen however, her husband’s prospects at court faltered. THE YEAR OF Sei Shōnagon’s birth was likely 966. Things that give me an Uncomfortable Feeling Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications This Dover edition, first published in 2019, is a republication of Arthur Waley’s abridged translation of The Pillow Book, as published by George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London, in 1928. Read moreĬopyright © 2019 by Dover Publications, Inc. With a lot of footnotes and several appendices about Heian court life, which add a lot. The details of the clothes are like Story of O without the spankings. The descriptions of clothes and the flowers or seasons they evoke, especially, fascinated me. Her descriptions of weather, court ceremonies, court attire, etc., are beautiful. None of that made me dislike her at all - she's like the bitchy friend you sit in the corner with to make snide remarks at all the other partygoers - and it's all the more astonishing that she wrote this around the year 990 - 1000. Sei Shonagon was a lady in waiting at the Heian court of Imperial Japan (not a courtesan, as some editions say - I'm outraged by this and think she would be too.) She's a snob, can't stand poor people, old people, incorrectly dressed people, and is vain about her ability to quote classical poetry and make witty retorts.

It's a scrapbook of observations and lists kept near the writer's pillow, not a book of erotica.

The pillow book shonagon