Centuries before Shakespeare, Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji was already acknowledged as a classic of Japanese literature. Over the past century, this book has gained worldwide acceptance as not only the world's first novel, but as one of the greatest works of literature of all time. The hero of the tale, Prince Genji, is a shining example of the Heian-era ideal man—accomplished in poetry, dance, music, painting, and, not least of all to...

Spans four thousand years and the world's major civilization to anthologize verses by women ranging from Enheduanna, a second millennium B.C. Sumerian princess, to the medieval poets Marie de France and Florencia de Pinar, to noteworthy poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.