Ebook: The gossamer years the diary of a noblewoman of Heian, Japan

Introduction -- The Gossamer Years: Book One; Book Two; Book Three -- Notes -- Appendix: The Heian Setting: Illustrations.;"This frank autobiographical diary reveals two tempestuous decades of the author's unhappy marriage and her growing indignation at rival wives and mistresses. Too impetuous to be satisfied as a subsidiary wife, this beautiful noblewoman of the Heian dynasty protests the marriage system of her time in one of Japanese literature's earliest attempts to portray difficult elements of the predominant social hierarchy. A classic work of early Japanese prose."--Cover.