The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 1: The Golden Days Paperback – March 30, 1974

This--the whole 5-volume set--remains China's greatest novel, and possibly the greatest novel in any language. It is the subject of a whole field of studies in China ("Red Studies," from the more usual Chinese title of the book, HUNG LOU MENG, "A Dream of Red Mansions"). It really should be read by every educated person.The other reviews on Amazon summarize the book well. Some of them comment on the translation's accuracy, which I cannot do, being too feeble in my Chinese to follow its difficult prose. There are several things to add, however.I'm currently reading it for the 3rd time (I have also read the abridged translations), with an eye to studying the ways emotion is represented, for some work on emotions across cultures that I am involved in. The interesting thing here is that the whole incredibly diverse, elaborate, and minutely described emotional landscape of the novel is instantly and totally accessible and comprehensible to a sensitive western reader (at least, to with some knowledge of Chinese conventions). There is nothing remotely like the utterly alien, incomprehensible emotional and personal landscape that stereotypes and superficial western accounts ascribe to the Chinese. There is also nothing like the utterly socialized Chinese, incapable of individuality, seen in most western accounts of cross-cultural psychology. In fact, Cao's characters are sometimes quirky, sometimes downright eccentric, and always individuals and characters. This is (of course) a much more accurate portrayal of Chinese persons than the stereotyping western literature.The western reader is even apt to do as Chinese readers often do, and identify Cao's characters with people they know. Cultural psychologists take note.First is the stunning level of social commentary here, focused tightly and relentlessly on the plight of women in a traditional elite North Chinese household, but also on the plight of the servant and commoner classes in that elitist situation. Cao Xueqin explores every possible misfortune that can befall good women (including being corrupted into not-so-good women).Cao was humorous and gently ironic. The brilliant but feckless and unpredictable hero Bao-yu survives largely because of his infinitely caring, sensible, always-there maid and lover Aroma. Several of the other characters also depend on servants who are conspicuously more sane and competent than their masters and mistresses.Nobody in the English-language literature seems to point out that this was part of a movement. The great poets Zheng Xie and Yuan Mei were exact contemporaries of Cao Xueqin. Cao would probably have known their work. They had the same socially critical stance. They had the same highly empathetic attitudes toward women, including women of the servant class. If the latter phrase sounds very feudal and hierarchic, reflect, American readers: our poets and novelists are very often elite New Englanders and New Yorkers; you know they have servants; yet it will be a cold day in Hell before you find a sympathetic portrait of a maid in any of their stuff. Cao is way ahead.Zheng and Yuan were also capable of the same sort of intensely personal, intimate, open writing about love that Cao managed so well. There is a wonderful translation of one of Zheng's more painful and personal love poems in V. McHugh and C. Kwock, WHY I LIVE ON THE MOUNTAIN, a booklet that should be more widely known--alas rare and obscure.Moreover, this humanistic attitude--toward women, or just toward everybody--spread to Japan; think of Rai Sanyo and Ryokan. I doubt if they ever heard of Cao, but they surely had read Yuan Mei and very likely had read Zheng and others.There were a good number of women writers at the time. Some were proteges of Yuan Mei. No one seems to know what happened to the women in Cao's own personal life.Chinese society in the early Qing Dynasty was horribly hierarchic and oppressive, not least to women, but the countercurrents represented by Cao and others were powerful and important. They lie behind modern women's movements in East Asia.

What can I say about "Story of the Stone" that hasn't already been said? It is truly one of the greatest masterpieces of world literature and I have spent nearly twenty years of my life reading and studying this incredible book, in both English and Chinese. Having read both multiple times, it should be said that David Hawkes' translation of the first three volumes if exceptional. While I don't agree with every decision he made as a translator, he always had a reasonable explanation (I've also seen his translator's notes, which is available in book form from the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press or available online for free). For example, I'm not sure about his changing of colors (e.g., "Dream of Golden Days" instead of "Dream of the Red Chamber"), but I understand why he did it, and he makes a very good case for it.What makes this translation truly exceptional (and the reason it is so much better than the English "translation" by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang) is because it can stand on its own as a work of literary art. Hawkes' masterful prose makes the reader feel like the book was originally written in English (despite the content letting you know that it's a very different world) because of how smooth and stylish it is. He is able to not only convey the words, but the mood, tone, and feel of the book, which is very hard to do, especially with something so complex as "Story of the Stone." He took some liberties with the translations of some of the poems (of which there is a lot in this novel), but they flowed naturally in English while still retaining, by and large, their original meaning and intent. Again, that is not something easy to do, not to mention his ability to handle nearly 300-year-old Chinese humor and 'playfulness' of word games and subtle foreshadowings. David Hawkes is clearly one of the most exceptional (if not THE most exceptional) translator of Chinese literature into English that I have ever encountered. His "Introduction" in Volume I is also one of the best overviews of the novel ever written.Of course, the novel itself, translation aside, is sheer brilliance. Its vast scope, ability to engender so many different (and genuine) feelings in the reader, all of the ups and downs. It could be said that Cao Xueqin writes like a painter. His insane attention to detail and description makes the reader feel like they are really there, standing in that elegant and opulent mansion or in Prospect Garden. It is said, though, that to truly start to understand "The Story of the Stone," you have to read it at least five times. I would also strongly suggest that those who fall in love with this novel, as I have, spend some time looking for other scholarly books and articles related to the novel, because there are so many complex layers involved, and you may even find a greater sense of closure (particularly if you don't read the last two volumes, which were a forgery, not written by the original author of the first 80 chapters, who had a quite different ending in mind).

I am not sure what to say about this book after reading only one volume. It is an exquisite blend of history, fantasy, magical realism, reality, riddle and of course Chinese philosophical witticisms.There are more than 550 characters in The Story of the Stone and many with very similar names. You must get familiar with at least 50 of these characters because they are not bit players.The plot(s) are intricate but not particularly hard to follow and the pace of reading is quite brisk and easily understandable. That in itself is an accomplishment since the story takes place in China around 250 years ago and revolves around lifestyles and customs that I would imagine that most Westerners are unfamiliar with.I actually read a review where someone compared this book with Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. I don't know about that, but the overview of the book is that it is about the decline and fall of two families.It is a highly enjoyable book.