![]() ![]() The first 80 chapters of the novel were written by Cao Xueqin, and the last 40 chapters were completed by Gao E. David Hawkes and John Minford (Penguin, 1973–1986). Quotations Unless otherwise noted, all quotations in English are taken from The Story of the Stone, 5 vols., trans. 2 Quotations about Dream of the Red Chamber.The novel is remarkable not only for its huge cast of characters and psychological scope, but also for its precise and detailed observation of the life and social structures typical of 18th-century Chinese society. As the author himself says in the introduction to the first chapter, it is intended to be a memorial to the damsels he knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants. Red Chamber is believed to be semi- autobiographical, mirroring the rise and decline of author Cao Xueqin's own family and, by extension, of the Qing Dynasty. Long considered a masterpiece of Chinese literature, the novel is generally acknowledged to be the pinnacle of Chinese fiction. It was written sometime in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. Real becomes not-real when the unreal's real.ĭream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦 Honglou Meng), also called The Story of the Stone (石头记 Shitou Ji), composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true ![]()
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