Murasaki’s Buddhist beliefs are evident in the story. The book exemplifies life’s tragedies, hardships, and the vanity of the world. Also, Genji is living in sadness about his mom's death. Many readers can connect to Murasaki Shikibu’s storyline and characters, because her themes are so real. As Clara Reeve, a British novelist, puts it, "The Novel is a picture of real life and manners, and ... gives a familiar relation of such things as pass every day before our eyes.... [It] represent[s] every scene in so easy and natural a manner ... as to deceive us into a persuasion (at least while we are reading) that all is real, until we are affected by the joys or distresses of the persons in the story as if they were our own."
The Tale of Genji
The Tale of Genji is a 54-chapter book, following the love affairs of the gifted and handsome Prince Hikaru Genji. After many unsuccessful relationships in the first few chapters, Prince Genji finally meets Murasaki, a young maiden who turns out to be the perfect wife (Murasaki Shikibu’s name is based off this character). Sadly, Murasaki dies, and Genji’s life pretty much goes downhill from then on, until he too eventually dies. This sad love story is considered to be one of the first long, fictional novels in the world.