Companion to the Story of the Stone

Kenneth Hsien-Yung Pai, Susan Chan Egan

"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"--