The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon (The Folio Society)

269 pp. Translated into English from the original Japanese by Ivan Morris, with an introduction by Robin Duke, and illustrations by Jasper Deane. In addition to the plates, there are drawings on pages 18 and 21. The text consists of 326 thoughts, some in poetic form, others rendered as prose sketches, freely translated from the tenth-century original. "One of the great classics of Japanese literature, The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is by far our most detailed source of factual material on life in eleventh-century Japan at the height of Heian culture."