The celebrated Chinese classic novel is a masterpiece of realism written in the middle of the-eighteenth century. Taking as its background the decline of several related big families and drawing much from his own experiences, the author Cao Xueqin (?-c.1763) focused on the tragic love between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu and, in the meantime, provides a panorama of the lives of people of various levels in the degenerating empire. But he left the work unfinished (or the last 40 chapters lost). Gao E (c.1738-c.1815) completed the work some years later in much of Cao's spirit and also put in his own revelation, which aroused protracted controversy throughout centuries. Exposing social evils, the book cries out denunciation against the feudal system. All techniques of literary merit developed in previous periods have been incorporated into the great work with much originality. It stands out in the world literature ranking with Hamlet and War and Peace.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
97 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Novel Ruined by a Poor Translation,
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This review is from: A Dream of Red Mansions (Chinese Classics, Classic Novel in 4 Volumes) (Paperback)
The Yangs' translation of "A Dream of Red Mansions" is extremely accurate. That's about the best thing to be said about it.
Unlike David Hawkes and John Minford's masterful translation, which can stand on its own as a work of literature, this edition reads like...well, like a translation. The prose is flat, the puns of the original are translated literally, rather than being approximated as in the Hawkes-Minford version, and on the whole, the flavour of the original Chinese text is missing. A person trying to read the original Chinese text of "A Dream of Red Mansions" might find this translation useful to keep at hand for a side-by-side comparison; it reads like a translator's crib. The Yangs of this edition take fewer liberties with jokes, puns, and poems than do Hawkes and Minford. (I should stress that when Hawkes and Minford deviate from the original text, it is only in minor and inconsequential ways, and is always in service of the text.) The Yangs failed to realise, apparently, that being faithful to the precise words of a book isn't necessarily the same as being faithful to the spirit, and their translation is no fun at all to read.
38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Chinese "Anna Karenina",
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This review is from: A Dream of Red Mansions (Chinese Classics, Classic Novel in 4 Volumes) (Paperback)
This book is like Anna Karenina in the following ways: Both are masterpieces of epic proportions. Both are considered contenders for being the greatest works of fiction in their respective languages. Both deal with large, upper class families and the lifestyle and intrigue involved. Both are works of realism and paint a complete picture of a society.A Dream of Red Mansions focuses on the love between Baoyu, an unusual child in his early teens who is temperamental and spends most of his time with the girls in the family mansion and Daiyu, a delicate, sensitive and yet witty and extremely clever girl. The two grow up as children and live in the same mansion but the family does not hurry to marry them off as they have other plans for Baoyu. This is the main thread that runs through the novel's amazing 120 chapters. The other sublots are very numerous - there are hundreds - but none of them are sustained for the whole book. The main part of the book is the set of characters. Again there are hundreds but a few main ones which become the most interesting in this drama. There's the conniving Xifeng, Baoyu's strict father, Baoyu's assertive "other love" Baochai and the like. Unlike Anna Karenina, this book is full of humour, jokes and poems (which was where I think the translation failed the most as Chinese poetry rendered into English seems to lose the plot!). It contains moments of great sadness but also wit and quirkiness. There's been controversy with the amazon reviews of this particular translation. I don't speak Chinese so can't judge it but reading the text, it seemed fine. I guess if I saw another or the original it would change my mind but this one isn't too bad. The novel deals with so many topics that you really get an overview of what life in 18th century upper class urban China was about. It is VERY long but it's amazing how in relating heaps and heaps of seemingly trivial incidents you grow to love many of the characters. It's like most novels are like meeting someone and hence only seeing what they want to show while this novel is like living with them. And trivialities aside, it's very moving. A must for all interested in Chinese society or who don't mind persevering through 1200 pages to read a one of the world's unusual and amazing dynasty chronicles and love stories.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great translation of a Chinese Classic,
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This review is from: A Dream of Red Mansions (Chinese Classics, Classic Novel in 4 Volumes) (Paperback)
One of the great classics of world literature. Having read both this translation and the David Hawkes' five volume translation of this novel, I personally prefer this one. Although the David Hawkes translation is smoother and more literary for the English speaking reader, I find that the Yang translation better conveys the atmosphere of 17th and 18th century China and the complex relationships between the various members of the upper class Chia household and their omnipresent bevy of slaves and servants. I even greatly enjoyed, from a tongue-in-cheek perspective, the "sayings of Chairman Mao" inspired introduction to this translation. I'm now ready to embark on my fourth reading of this book in about as many years.
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