Project Gutenberg 2025-05-05 Public domain in the USA. 464 Sei Shōnagon 1017 Shōnagon, Sei Sei Sonankon 清少納言 Sonankon, Sei Shonagon, Sei Waley, Arthur 1889 1966 Schloss, Arthur David Makura no sōshi. Selections. English The pillow-book of Sei Shōnagon $aLondon :$bGeorge Allen & Unwin Ltd, $c1928. "I have here translated about a quarter of the Pillow-book."--Preliminary notes. Wikipedia page about this book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pillow_Book Carla Foust, Robert Tonsing, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) "The Pillow-Book of Sei Shōnagon" is a collection of personal essays, memoirs, and observations written during the late 10th century in Japan. The work offers an intimate portrait of court life from the perspective of Sei Shōnagon, a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Sadako, showcasing her keen aesthetic sensibilities and acute social perceptions. The likely topic of the text is the daily customs, interpersonal relationships, and cultural practices at the Heian court, presented through lists, anecdotes, and reflective musings centered on Shōnagon’s own experiences and opinions. The opening of "The Pillow-Book of Sei Shōnagon" sets the historical and cultural context of the Heian period, emphasizing the court’s refined but insular civilization marked by a devotion to aesthetics, literature, and etiquette over intellectual or technological progress. Through the translator’s preface and the early passages, we are introduced to Shōnagon’s initial nervousness at court, her interactions with the Empress and fellow courtiers, and the subtle dynamics of courtly life—a world filled with poetry competitions, elegant outings, lively personalities, and social rivalries. Vivid anecdotes and detailed descriptions—such as the excitement of palace ceremonies, the role of poetry in daily life, and the nuanced etiquette of relationships—foreground the highly ritualized and emotionally intricate world of the Japanese aristocracy. This introduction immerses the reader in both the immediacy and the fragility of a vibrant court society seen through Shōnagon’s witty, sometimes candid, and often acutely observational lens. (This is an automatically generated summary.) https://archive.org/details/pillowbookofseis0000arth_v1i4/page/n1/mode/2up 20240723153757sei 1928 GB Reading ease score: 76.7 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Japan -- Court and courtiers Sei Shōnagon, approximately 967- Japan -- Social life and customs -- 794-1185 PL Text Category: Biographies Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches 262911 2025-07-30T06:20:08.058667 text/html 236530 2025-05-05T07:56:36 text/html 494916 2025-07-30T06:20:13.835189 application/epub+zip 496422 2025-07-30T06:20:09.487667 application/epub+zip 163550 2025-07-30T06:20:08.598668 application/epub+zip 542190 2025-07-30T06:20:16.703123 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 522450 2025-07-30T06:20:13.165653 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 202692 2025-07-30T06:20:07.465681 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 182732 2025-05-05T07:56:36 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 17942 2025-07-30T06:20:16.873103 application/rdf+xml 13250 2025-07-30T06:20:09.036655 image/jpeg 2345 2025-07-30T06:20:08.917667 image/jpeg 596224 2025-07-30T06:20:08.090687 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia en.wikipedia