The first volume of a celebrated translation of the classic Chinese novel
This is the first volume in David Roy's celebrated translation of one of the most famous and important novels in Chinese literature.
The Plum in the Golden Vase
or,
Chin P’ing Mei
is an anonymous sixteenth-century work that focuses on the domestic life of Hsi-men Ch’ing, a corrupt, upwardly mobile merchant in a provincial town, who maintains a harem of six wives and concubines. The novel, known primarily for its erotic realism, is also a landmark in the development of the narrative art form—not only from a specifically Chinese perspective but in a world-historical context.
With the possible exception of
The Tale of Genji
(1010) and
Don Quixote
(1615), there is no earlier work of prose fiction of equal sophistication in world literature. Although its importance in the history of Chinese narrative has long been recognized, the technical virtuosity of the author, which is more reminiscent of the Dickens of
Bleak House
, the Joyce of
Ulysses
, or the Nabokov of
Lolita
than anything in the earlier Chinese fiction tradition, has not yet received adequate recognition. This is partly because all of the existing European translations are either abridged or based on an inferior recension of the text. This translation and its annotation aim to faithfully represent and elucidate all the rhetorical features of the original in its most authentic form and thereby enable the Western reader to appreciate this Chinese masterpiece at its true worth.