Japanese · 978–1014
Murasaki Shikibu created what many scholars consider the world's first novel, a thousand years before the form emerged in Europe. A lady-in-waiting at the Heian court, she wrote The Tale of Genji for court women, exploring the amorous adventures and spiritual development of a fictional prince through 54 chapters of psychological subtlety and aesthetic refinement. The novel established mono no aware—the pathos of things, the beauty of transience—as a central Japanese aesthetic concept. Her diary and poetry also survive. Her name was probably a nickname; her personal name is unknown. Virginia Woolf praised Genji as proving that the art of fiction was perfected in Asia a thousand years ago.