Customer Reviews

Epistolary Korea: Letters in the Communicative Space of the Choson, 1392-1910

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This is a really nice book to read. Excellent for getting insights into Korean culture and tradition. The texts are clear and carefully annotated. A great book to have.

I was disappointed with the book, but then I am not working on a Ph.D dissertation. The selections translated here give an unfortunatly narrow view of Koreans, especially the Catholic Martyr Koreans. I recommend as an antidote Peter H. Lee's "Anthology of Korean Literature" for a more in depth sense of this ancient society. For one thing, there are translations of some of it's poetry, which in my opinion are essential to understanding the Korean heart and soul. I just happened to open "Hymn of Constancy" while doing this review. Check it out!

While I have not read this book as yet, I look forward to getting it. My studies in the area of literary Korea (mostly poetry and linguistic issues) has shown me that there is a wonderful body of human expression which the so-called western academic tradition is ignorant of and is therefore missing a great deal. The possibility of reading the 'letters' from the Choson period is immensely exciting, and I hope that many will take advantage of this work.