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Cao Xueqin (1715–1763)

Author of The Golden Days

104+ Works 4,533 Members 64 Reviews 16 Favorited

About the Author

Image credit: Photo by user Yongxinge / Wikimedia Commons

Series

Works by Cao Xueqin

The Golden Days (1791) 1,020 copies
Dream of the Red Chamber (1791) 783 copies
The Crab-Flower Club (1977) 465 copies
The Warning Voice (1980) 399 copies
The Debt of Tears (1982) 356 copies
The Dreamer Wakes (1986) 353 copies
Silveråldern (2017) 4 copies
红楼梦 3 copies
Hong lou meng (2011) 3 copies
The Dream of Red Mansions (2019) 2 copies
全本红楼梦 (2004) 2 copies
红楼梦 2 copies
紅樓夢 1 copy
红楼梦 (2009) 1 copy
红楼梦 (2006) 1 copy
紅樓夢 (上) (1979) 1 copy
红楼梦 1 copy
红楼梦(青少版) (2013) 1 copy
Sinica 14. Bd 3 (2009) 1 copy
Sinica 14. Bd 2 (2006) 1 copy
Sinica 14. Bd 1 (2006) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Book of Fantasy (1940) — Contributor — 586 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Members

Discussions

Story of the Stone, Red Chamber - Read along in Ancient China (October 2011)

Reviews

This was by far my favorite volume of the three I've read so far. Of course, my darling Xi-feng took center stage for most of it (apart from all of those times when she was indisposed), so naturally I was more interested by the events of this book. Yes, I am a Xi-feng apologist, even after what she did to all of those people.
 
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ejerig | 6 other reviews | Oct 25, 2023 |
Xi-feng is my favorite and no one can convince me otherwise. Is she a bit messy? Yes, but I still love her. I think I would absolutely hate her in real life, but in the same way of I'm against my brother but my brother and I are against everyone else (Xi-feng being the proverbial brother in this situation). I also loved Qin-shi but not quite as much, for reasons that I can't possibly share with those who haven't read it. I hope Xi-feng keeps being her bad self in the next volume, which I will soon be embarking on. That being said, I must share a grievance of mine that has more to do with me than the book itself. I found myself in dire need of a family tree pretty much immediately. Why, you ask? Because pretty much every character is related and they're introduced in large batches and they live together so they all blended together. This isn't always a problem for me. Even in One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is arguably worse because it actually has characters with identical names, even sometimes over ten characters with the same name running around at the same time, I had no problems because I had a family tree going into it. I did not have a similar aide for this one, however. I spent several hundred pages ruminating on my inability to keep characters straight. Who were Qin-shi's in-laws? And she was married to Jia Rong, I think? Where did Jia Zheng/Zhen/Qiang/Lian/Lan (seriously, I could keep going on) come into this? I was at the point where I was even considering making a family tree of my own. Then, when I was about 500 pages in (yes, 500 out of the 520ish that are actual text and not appendices) I put my book down upside down to help a patron at work and I spotted something on the back cover, which I had neglected to read. Friends, there was a family tree in the back of the book the whole time, and it said that very clearly under the blurb on the back cover. It always comes back to smarter not harder, I suppose. A masterpiece overall. Much saucier than one would expect, yet at the same time philosophical. I especially enjoyed the tags at the end of the chapters which encouraged the reader to read on. As someone who tries to read a minimum amount each day and often doesn't read extra, this was the support I needed.… (more)
 
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ejerig | 14 other reviews | Oct 25, 2023 |
Why do all of these young people have such weak constitutions?Yes, this volume does center around their poetry club, but there are tons of intriguing (and frankly, simply insane) things that happen as well. Also Xi-Feng, my darling, gets a lot of undeserved flak in this one, but also sometimes she deserves it, so I'll give them that one. I've decided we would be friends and not enemies, but only because I know never to talk to her about money!5/5, I wish I lived in the garden.
 
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ejerig | 5 other reviews | Oct 25, 2023 |
Unsurprisingly, it gets a lot more exciting when things start falling apart for the Jias. I still think everyone is too hard on Xi-feng. For one, she's sick all the time and no one else can do her job properly. She also has the gall to make the hard decisions and be a snake when no one else will.
But also how could they just let Dai-yu die alone and act all shocked about it? Everyone knew she was dying and they specifically avoided her anyway.
 
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ejerig | 4 other reviews | Oct 25, 2023 |

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Associated Authors

Gao E Author
Wang Chi-Chen Translator
Kao Ou Author
David Hawkes Translator
Wang Chi Chen Translator
John Minford Translator
Mark Van Doren Preface, Foreword
Gladys Yang Translator
Yang Hsien-Yi Translator
Franz Kuhn Translator
Yang Xianyi Translator
Edward Gorey Typography
Seong Moy Cover artist
Chu Pang Cover artist
Pär Bergman Translator
Lan Caihe Cover artist
Tang Yin Cover artist

Statistics

Works
104
Also by
1
Members
4,533
Popularity
#5,539
Rating
4.1
Reviews
64
ISBNs
297
Languages
9
Favorited
16
About
1
Touchstones
126

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