The dissenters charge Genji with crimes against women. However, a reaction against this sort of view has set in recently in Japan, North America, and no doubt elsewhere. These are striking or admirable traits, and Genji has often been praised by both men and women as representing an ideal. One, established for centuries and still current, accepts the position taken repeatedly by the narrator herself, to the effect that Genji is all but irresistible that he values character as highly as he values looks and that he never abandons any woman with whom he has established a bond. There are two basic evaluations of Genji's love relationships. Actually, the stories about these liaisons are concentrated above all in the first dozen chapters (out of fifty-four), but since these are the ones most widely read and remembered, the general reputation of the tale tends to rest upon them. Those familiar with The Tale of Genji (early 11th c., by Murasaki Shikibu), know that its hero, Genji, establishes liaisons with a wide variety of women.
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