Dream of the Red Chamber [Paperback]

Tsao Hsueh-Chin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 1958

For more than a century and a half, Dream of the Red Chamber has been recognized in China as the greatest of its novels, a Chinese Romeo-and-Juliet love story and a portrait of one of the world's great civilizations. Chi-chen Wang's translation is skillful, accurate and fascinating.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

From the Publisher

For more than a century and a half, Dream Of The Red Chamber has been recognized in China as the greatest of its novels, a Chinese Romeo-and-Juliet love story and a portrait of one of the world's great civilizations. Chi-chen Wang's translation is skillful, accurate and fascinating.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; Abridged edition (October 20, 1958)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385093799
• ISBN-13: 978-0385093798
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful novel, June 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Dream of the Red Chamber (Paperback)

The 18th century novel, Hongloumeng, remains the greatest Chinese novel ever written, unsurpassed in its depiction of individuals and families, human striving, and stellar literary values. It may be read on many levels, as a love story or social history, as a philosophical musing on the futility of human existence, and a repository of Chinese artistic and literary values. The translation under review is a sharply abridged version that advances the plot line by eliminating many of the minor characters, most of the poetry, and a great deal of the detailed descriptions of daily life in an upper class Chinese family. Those seeking a full appreciation of the novel, especially its literary value, should turn to the full translation, which goes by the title Story of the Stone. However, the full complete translation is a multivalued piece, almost 2,000 pages in length. What you get with this translation is a good feel for the main characters, especially the love triangle, and for the social dynamics within the family. The result in a lovely read that will inspire you to compare this abridge version with a fuller version to see what you missed. I still use this translation in my history courses, but I use it for social history. My colleagues in literature prefer to use volume 1 of the Story of the Stone for their classes.

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Do yourself a favor -, October 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Dream of the Red Chamber (Paperback)

Although this translation is concise and contained in one volume, the Penguin Books publication of this work (in that version, titled first as "Story of the Stone") is an infinitely better translation - the poetry is kept intact and the story is in full, instead of condensed for speed. In addition, the maids - who frequently outnumber the mistresses and masters in the plot line - are introduced to the reader with names in English, which makes the story a little easier to follow.

If you really like this story and have not read the unabridged version, please do yourself a favor and find the Penguin publications. I love this novel, but there are better translations.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very drastic abridgement of an already-abridged translatio, July 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dream of the Red Chamber (Paperback)

Chi-Chen Wang published an abridged translation of "Dream of the Red Chamber" (also known as "A Dream of Red Mansions" and "The Story of the Stone") in 1929; in 1958 he extensively expanded and revised his translation, to about 550 pages in length. This is only a fraction of the Chinese text, which runs more than three times this length. The next year, Anchor (a subsidiary of Doubleday, which is now owned by Bantam) published this translation in paperback -- but had abridged it, to less than 300 pages! It's a very skillful translation, but a more drastic abridgement than the publisher acknowleges.

I would look at the Penguin edition (translated as "The Story of the Stone," in five volumes) or the edition published by the Chinese Government (translated as "A Dream of Red Mansions," in three volumes) rather than this one.