319. The Tale of Genji - Trefoil Knots

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Genji

The Lady at the Bridge

Kaoru has discovered who his true father was from a servant he ran into at the home of a prince (a brother of Genji who is living in the wilderness with his two beautiful daughters). Kaoru, while seeking out the prince because of his religious bent and training, has become interested in his daughters. Unclear if all this is simply to inform him of his paternity or if there is more plot than that. By this point I’m expecting him to follow his “brother” and reveal himself as yet another “seducer.”

After several chapters of note passing and finally of -- oh, the shock -- speaking through a curtain or screen, Kaoru has finally gotten a good long look at both of the princesses. I thought I was going to faint.

Trefoil Knots
This just goes on and on. There’s just a little of Elizabeth and Darcy here. He can’t comprehend that any woman would reject him while she would as soon be left alone. (Until she sees Pemberley.) However there is no indication that she has the sense of Elinor or Anne or even the elder Bennetts. We have no idea how the family finances stand, since there’s no indication that the author knows anything about that side of things. Is the elder princess in the position of Emma? Or does she need to be taken care of. Clearly her women are eager to put her out to breed or worse. The author does not exactly show women in the best light.

P847 The princesses’ women, parsing the relative attractions of Niou and Kaoru, are astonishingly like the Bennett household discussing Bingley and Darcy.

P849 “Oigimi too was pleased: they [Niou, her sister Nakanokimi’s rapist and new lover, and Kaoru, who is courting her] could not have chosen a better moment [for a visit]. At the same time she was embarrassed and somewhat annoyed that Niou’s rather pompous friend should have come with him. Then, presently, as she watched the two of them, she had to change her mind in this matter too. Kaoru was a most unusual young man: he had a quiet seriousness that put him in the sharpest contrast with Niou.”

Here Nakanokimi is Jane and Niou is Bingley while Oigimi is mostly Elizabeth (with a little of her mother) while Kaoru is Darcy.

P855 “It was apparent to Oigimi that Nakanokimi was crushed, and the pity was almost as difficult to bear as the anger. ‘If I had been able to care for her in any ordinary way, if ours had been an ordinary house, she would not have been subjected to such treatment.’ “

This after Kaoru and Niou visit the area -- staying at one of Yugiri’s houses across the river -- but their plans to visit the princesses are thwarted by Niou’s mother, the Empress, and Yugiri who wants Niou to marry one of his daughters. The “lovers” are blameless here but the result is much the same as when Darcy convinces Bingley to flee Longbourn.

By the end of the page there are also elements of S&S. How do we know some eccentric gentleman didn’t translate this in the 18th century and circulate copies around the gentry or vicarages. You would find it in vicarage drawers like the Gideon Bible.

P866 This chapter seems endless as Ogimi starves herself to death. It’s taking me forever to read.

P871 The chapter is finally ended. Ogimi is dead. Niou’s mother (the Empress) agrees to the surviving princess coming to town and a broken Kaoru is overseeing this move. In reviewing the chapter, this has been one part the princesses not understanding the men, and one part a Buddhist eagerness to leave this life behind. Both parts are pretty annoying.


We have at least gotten a much better view of the life of these cloistered women and of what they are thinking. That’s new and makes me wonder if that’s why this part of the book is suspected of not being by the same author. (Just reviewed the Wiki discussion and, indeed, this is the section that is suspected of being written by someone else, possibly the daughter of Murasaki.) Interesting that I appreciate this new perspective yet I’m finding it hard to wade through the dreary details.