Rare glimpses of the intrigues and drama of court life in 11th-century Japan as expressed by the empress's tutor and companion, who also wrote the fictional Tale of Genji.

Japanese novelist and poet, Murasaki Shikibu (c. AD 973-1025) served as a lady-in-waiting at the imperial court during the Heian period. She and other women writers of the era were instrumental in developing Japanese as a written language, and her masterpiece, The Tale of Genji, is regarded as the world's first novel.