The Thousand-Year Anniversary of "The Tale of Genji"

Written at the beginning of the eleventh century by one of our nation's foremost women writers, Murasaki Shikibu, "The Tale of Genji" features a dazzling array of characters, imaginative plotting, an elegantly expressive narrative, and some of the most beautiful usage ever seen of the Japanese language. It is the most ancient surviving full-length novel in the world, and is one of the greatest works of Japanese literature.

http://www.2008genji.jp/english/tale_of_genji/t_01.html