Companion to the Story of the Stone
Subtitle: A Chapter-By-Chapter Guide
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2021
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780231199452
Subjects: Language and languages
Description: "The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, as it is also known, is a dauntingly long book with over 400 characters. The eighteenth-century novel has all the elements of a well-crafted soap opera, but embedded in the story is an unsentimental critique of China's political and social system at its peak of glory, before the intrusion of the West. Therefore, literary merits aside, the novel offers a fun way to learn about premodern China. A Companion to The Story of the Stone: A Chapter-by-Chapter Guide provides a succinct summary and commentary on each chapter of the novel"--