The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 4: The Debt of Tears

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“The Story of the Stone” (c. 1760), also known by the title of “The Dream of the Red Chamber”, is the great novel of manners in Chinese literature. Divided into five volumes, of which “The Debt of Tears” is the fourth, it charts the glory and decline of the illustrious Jia family (a story which closely accords with the fortunes of the author’s own family). The two main characters, Bao-yu and Dai-yu, are set against a rich tapestry of humour, realistic detail and delicate poetry, which accurately reflects the ritualized hurly-burly of Chinese family life. But over and above the novel hangs the constant reminder that there is another plane of existence a theme, which affirms the Buddhist belief in a supernatural scheme of things.

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Martin A. Perea says:

Still fascinating and a page-turner despite diminished writing style Nothing good lasts forever, whether we are talking about the Garden or this novel itself… Volumes 4 and 5 are thought to be written by Gao E a generation after Cao Xueqin’s untimely death. There has been rampant speculation since the appearance of these last 40 chapters in 1791 as to how faithfully they followed Cao’s original intention and how much material Gao E had to work with in editing it all together. I wish that David Hawkes, the translator of the first three…

A. Johnson says:

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