A fabulous book - read it fast..
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Xueqin’s tale of life behind the doors of the Jia mansion is a wonderful picture of eighteenth-century China and a hugely engaging narrative. Bao-yu is the spoilt and cheeky boy hero who can’t resist a pretty face, and Dai-yu is the independent and sensitive heroine (it’s hard not to recall characters in English fiction from the same period such as Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones and Richardson’s Clarissa). He loves her but, as she is a poorer relation, his family would not permit their match. The section at the end of Volume 4 that charts the climax of their relationship is very moving. Xueqin peoples his text with gripping characters: the fabulously harsh domestic manager Xi-feng, clever maid Patience, refined but out of touch Lady Wang, craven Huan, hot-tempered Jia Zhang and the perennially dissatisfied concubines. The altercations between Bao-yu’s shrewd maids are fun. I stayed up all night to finish Volume 3 and then couldn't put down Volume 4 during the following day. Although such an approach was perhaps a little addictive, I feel that it is worth reading the book as quickly as possible. The longer you wait between volumes, the more the relationships between characters - and the significance of such relationships - slip from your mind.
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Stranger on a train
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I once sat next to a girl on a long-distrance train who was reading the final volume of 'The story of the stone'. As she finished the last page she sighed and said, to nobody in particular, 'I can't believe it's finished...I've lived with these people for so long and now it's all over. I'll just have to start it again...' I decided then that I must read the book and have now got to volume 4. Even now, I know that my feelings when I get to the end of volume 5 will be much the same as those of the girl on the train. This is total involvement with a lost culture and will teach you more about China of the period than many a history book. Read it. Live it. Love these exasperating characters. Then start all over again....
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A long, absobing, and rich novel
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A superb, brilliant, moving, charming and very long novel from late 18th century China. Extremely readably translated by David Hawkes (vols 1-3) and John Minford (vols 4 & 5). There is much that is rewarding in the novel: the insight into the intimate domestic life of a Chinese family, the way the three traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism weave together in social and personal life; the very likeable characters - especially Bao-yu. It took me four months to read it (I read the short and wonderful Analects of Confucius at the same time too) but it is a book that goes at a leisurely pace anyway. Some while after completing the novel I sat down and wrote a list of all the characters I could remember from it. I wrote down 60 names (and that is despite not knowing any Chinese at all)! It was just living with these characters for such a time that had made them memorable and dear to me. For me the novel is from a different culture and for all readers it is from a different century. These things makes it less than an easy read at first, but make it all the more rewarding and very, very much worth sticking with to the end.
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Excellent but requires initial patience
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This is the first volume of a 5 volume series, and does not stand alone. If you read it, and enjoy it, be prepared to read the other four volumes. The story is difficult to begin with, not for lack of interest, but because of the complexity of Chinese names for the western reader. The book is provided with a useful list of characters for each volume, and after referring to this during the first half the first volume, all becomes clearer for the remainder of the book. The story itself is a fascinating picture of life in 18th century China, and portrays the development of a young boy who has otherworldly origins. The western reader needs to view dispassionately the Buddhist theme which pervades the novel, but when read with an open mind, the philosophy underlying the novel is both charming and practical (in its own way). I found the book addictive, though it has to be said that others of my acquaintance found it too difficult to cope with, and abandoned the story before the end of the first volume. If you persevere, it forms a wonderful introduction to classical Chinese literature, and those similarly addicted will find it leads into many other books of Chinese prose and poetry.
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Good Attempt on Translating difficult Chinese
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I have just finished reading the Chinese Version of the story (which I would rate as 5 stars), and thought, although the English Version is pretty accurate, it somehow lacks the fluency the story should have. Because of the difficulty for foreign people to imagine the situation, readers are not involved in the story as much and is therefore less effective than some books like the Wild Swan. The translation has definitely lost some tastes from the Chinese version. However if you are a foreigner who wants to explore Chinese culture, or a person who does not understand written Chinese very well (like me), this is still the book to read,for this is a book that can endure repeated reading such that one can inevitably find more and more traces of Cao Xueqin's ingenuity.
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