De rode kamer|Pauline A. Chen 9789023475644

||boek: De rode kamer|vertaling: Otto Biersma|Luud Dorresteijn|De Bezige Bij

||door: Pauline A. Chen

||taal: nl
||jaar: 2012
||druk: ?
||pag.: 462p
||opm.: paperback|zo goed als nieuw|ex-bibliotheek|gekaft|bladrand vertoont vlekjes

||isbn: 978-90-234-7564-4
||code: 1:001894

--- Over het boek (foto 1): De rode kamer ---

De rode kamer is Pauline A. Chens epische hervertelling van het belangrijkste boek uit de Chinese literatuur, De droom van de rode kamer, dat zich afspeelt in het roerige Beijing van de achttiende eeuw. Het is een indringende roman over rangen en standen en over de ondergeschikte positie van Chinese vrouwen in die tijd, die ondanks de hun opgelegde beperkingen de kracht vinden om een eigen leven te leiden.

Daiyu heeft haar hele leven in de provincie gewoond, maar wordt na de dood van haar moeder naar haar familie Jia in de Chinese hoofdstad Beijing gestuurd. Haar familieleden blijken tot haar verbazing nauwe banden te onderhouden met het keizerlijk paleis en een weelderig leven te leiden in de talrijke vertrekken van huize Rongguo. Ze zijn verwikkeld in geheimzinnige intriges en leveren een bittere strijd om macht en invloed.

Daiyu trekt bij haar komst meteen de aandacht van haar neef Baoyu, maar hij is door zijn grootmoeder al uitgehuwelijkt aan een andere nicht. De noodlottige liefde tussen Daiyu en Baoyu markeert het begin van de teloorgang van de familie Jia.

[bron: flaptekst]

In eighteenth-century China, the beautiful orphan Daiyu leaves her home in the provinces to seek shelter with her mother's family in Beijing. At Rongguo Mansion, she is drawn into a world of sumptuous feasts, silken robes, and sparkling jewels - as well as a complex web of secret rivalries and intrigues that threatens to trap her at every turn. When she falls in love with Baoyu, the family's brilliant, unpredictable heir, she finds the forces of the family and convention arrayed against her, and must risk everything to follow her heart.

Based on the epic Dream of the Red Chamber--one of the most famous love stories in Chinese literature--this novel recasts a timeless tale for Western audiences to discover.

[source: https--www.amazon.com]

Reviews

"Dazzles on every page. Heartbreaking, exhilarating, and impossible to put down." --Julie Otsuka, author of The Buddha in the Attic

"Bold and memorable... Chen retells and recreates in lush detail the daily life inside the Rongguo Mansion, where scandalous secrets and lies are hidden behind a grand façade." --Chicago Tribune

"Elegant... takes a long hard look at the complex interconnected desires, ambitions, and conventions that can bind a family together--or tear it apart." --The Daily Beast

"Rarely does a cast of beloved literary figures from another culture and time come alive on the pages of a modern writer's work. Pauline Chen has reimagined the characters from my very favorite novel to make a compelling new version of China's great literary masterpiece." --Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha

"Draws a memorable portrait of the Qing dynasty era, revealing a dangerous world of intrigue and secrets within the entrapping web of societal mores and manners. Written in a precise, cinematic style, Chen's novel brings this fascinating historical period to vivid life." --Dan Chaon, author of Stay Awake

"Chen's adaptation boils down the original story to focus, in part, on that famous [love] triangle that just about everyone in China knows." --NPR

"All the reversals and treachery of a telenovela... moving, startling, and quite beautiful." --The Plain Dealer

"Offers a window into a foreign world... Chen's framework provides a context for her characters' actions, as often flawed as they are heroic, that makes things not just knowable but comprehensible."--The Denver Post

"A tangled past shapes a present rich with sex, violence, intrigue, guilt and jealousy... Here is clearly a work of love and a pleasing introduction to a novel--and a world--that Americans deserve to get to know." --The Columbus Dispatch

"Chen raises the bar extraordinarily high in this reimagining of one of the most famous Chinese books ever written... reads like a cross between Upstairs Downstairs and War and Peace. This is a well-crafted novel full of skill and grace from an author to watch out for." --Sunday Business Post (Ireland)

"Gripping... These are complex storylines and well-loved literary characters, but Chen handles their emotions artfully and with compassion... Chen has successfully unravelled and rethreaded Cao's masterpiece for a new audience." --Sunday Morning Post (Hong Kong)

"Guaranteed to appeal to fans of Lisa See... From the mighty heights to the depths of poverty and despair, the significance of female relationships, friendships, and rivalries are at the forefront of this compelling glimpse into an exotic time and place." --Booklist

"The writing is supple and Chen often touches notes of emotional depth." --Kirkus Reviews

"Full of lavish details of the palace, sumptuous feasts, and day-to-day minutiae, levitating whispered conversations overheard by the wrong parties, capricious scheming between family members, and gossip hidden beneath every elegant tapestry and beaded pillow to lofted heights." --Publishers Weekly

"Fans of historical fiction who appreciate resonant details, unexpected intrigue, and multigenerational plotting will find this work irresistible... just the right blend of the highbrow literary and guilty summer pulp" --Library Journal

[source: https--www.amazon.com]

At once a roman a clef and a sweeping love story, combining scathing social critique with a meditation on the nature of reality, Cao Xueqin's eighteenth-century masterpiece The Dream of the Red Chamber still stands as one of the most sophisticated and complex novels of all time.

[source: https--roundtable.org/class/course/reading-the-dream-of-the-red-chamber-with-pauline-a-chen]

In this lyrical reimagining of the Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber, set against the breathtaking backdrop of eighteenth-century Beijing, the lives of three unforgettable women collide in the inner chambers of the Jia mansion. When orphaned Daiyu leaves her home in the provinces to take shelter with her cousins in the Capital, she is drawn into a world of opulent splendor, presided over by the ruthless, scheming Xifeng and the prim, repressed Baochai. As she learns the secrets behind their glittering façades, she finds herself entangled in a web of intrigue and hidden passions, reaching from the petty gossip of the servants' quarters all the way to the Imperial Palace. When a political coup overthrows the emperor and plunges the once-mighty family into grinding poverty, each woman must choose between love and duty, friendship and survival.

In this dazzling debut, Pauline A. Chen draws the reader deep into the secret, exquisite world of the women's quarters of an aristocratic household, where the burnish of wealth and refinement mask a harsher truth: marriageable girls are traded like chattel for the family's advancement, and to choose to love is to risk everything.

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2013-01-28]

Holy anachronisms, Batman. This hugely entertaining, if not particularly well-written reimagining of Cao Xueqin's 18th century classic, is full of clunky phrases like "Pan had killed someone. Could he actually escape scot-free?" (it must be noted that "scot-free" shows up not once but TWICE. Does Knopf not hire editors or what?) and hilariously unsubtle observations like "She feels oppressed by the weight of being the perfect daughter". At one point, the phrase "adieu" is used in a riddle, and while I don't know anything about Chinese-French relations during the Qing Dynasty (school is wasted on the young) I'm pretty sure that "adieu" was probably not in the lexicon of young Chinese aristocratic women of the time. To be fair, this phrase was taken from David Hawkes' translation and it is needed for a rhyme, but you think SOMEONE would have noticed.

That being said, I'm a sucker for all that exotic Oriental shit (crushed jasmines, mother-of-pearl screens, vests embroidered with gold flowers, etc) which I'm not sure is okay to say because while I'm Chinese, I'm so divorced from that culture that it sounds fetishistic but let's leave it at that. I also love palace intrigue, downstairs/upstairs stories (we get a few subplots involving the servants and maids), and abrupt changes in fortune, all of which this book is happy to supply me with. While the Red Chamber is nominally centered around a love triangle, the real focus is on the complicated friendships and relationships between the women at the Rongguo Mansion. My favorite character was Wang Xifeng, who I imagine as the Cersei Lannister of Beijing, slinging back wine and having steamy affairs (not with her brother though) and generally ruining the illusions of more naive girls. Her sisterwife-like relationship with her body servant, Ping'er, is one of the more interesting aspects of the novel.

Red Chamber reminds me a lot of that other recent reworking of an epic, which was also written by an Ivy League classics student-turned-classics-professor. While Red Chamber's sex scenes are way less sappy than the ones in "Song of Achilles", the novels share that same modern desire of examining the psychology of characters who are touchstones in their respective cultures. They also both suffer from a fairly shallow reading of the original text and a lack of a subtle hand (maybe Chen and Miller could have benefited from studying English lit as well just to see how the competent English-language writers do it. JUST SAYIN.)

Final verdict: I'd definitely recommend this book as pure entertainment. It's so easy to read and just as soapy as anything you'd watch on a Shonda Rimes TV show. I couldn't put it down (which I can't say for any book I've read since middle school). Plus, it might pique your interest in the real thing. I've always wanted to read Hawkes' translation but I was always intimidated by the length and the amount of characters. Maybe this introduction will make it a little easier.

Megan [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog! [2012-06-09]

After a bit of a slow start that was almost soap operatic in nature due to the sheer amount of secrets, lies, betrayals and affairs abounding, The Red Chamber impressed me with its scope and tragedy. Though I had anticipated an impending Tragedy with overtones of Old Timey Romantical Problems, this novel is far more than just love-triangles in powerful family. Based on one of China's Four Great Classical Novels, the 18th-century The Dream of the Red Chamber (also called The Story of the Stone) Chen's condensed version of the classic presents a more streamlined cast (down from 40 principle and 400 supporting to a much more manageable dozen or so main and limited background characters) and allows for more immediate impact from their respective edited storylines. I have not yet read the original version of The Dream of the Red Chamber, though I fully plan to now that I have devoured this in under a day, so I cannot honestly attest to the quality and breadth of this author's personal adaptation, but I can vouch for this novel's own uniquely compelling merits, of which there are many to enjoy. Historical fiction readers who enjoy convoluted family politics, strong and realistically flawed female protagonists set amid a backdrop of Imperial intrigue and maneuvering have found their next read right here.

If the author hadn't pared down the cast of characters invented by original author Cao Xueqin, each of the 40 main and 400 supporting wouldn't even get a page to themselves in this still-lengthy 400-page version. Clearly both the original author and Pauline Chen have a large scope and vision for their narrative and largely, it works. My few problems with The Red Chamber happened early and dissipated long before the end; the narrative jumps from character to character along a (seemingly) connected plotline, but there isn't much plot to be seen for the first 150 or so pages, and the characters themselves can come across as largely formulaic up to that point. Once the massive groundwork has been laid and personalities established, Chen really jumps into her novel. This seven-part novel is alive with a tangible, real feel for both its characters and its Qing setting and both benefit under the steady hand of this debut author. Condensing over 2000 pages into a compact 400 page version cannot be an easy task, but outside from the sluggish introduction, I have to think that Chen did a remarkable job making the story, especially one so intricate and convoluted, definitely hers while still managing to pay homage to the ideas, themes and plotlines that made the first, original edition so well-loved and widely-read across China.

I haven't read a ton of Chinese historical fiction, and the only one I've truly loved before this was Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Happily the Manchu women shown in The Red Chamber don't undergo the tortuous footbinding I had to read about in Lisa See's novel, but their lives are just as constricted, regulated and predetermined as Lily and Snow Flower's golden toes ever were. This novel has a lot of main characters, but it is largely the women who take the cake; it is the women who save the Jia family over and over, usually with little to no thanks. Pauline Chen's cast of smart but very different women has several interesting parallels: Xifeng and Ping'ers friendship lost over love is mirrored in the storyline (and love-triangle) of Baochai, Daiyu and Baoyu. Each girl from either pair makes their decisions for love, for money, for security and Chen illustrates each at their best and their worst. It's easy to root for little Daiyu, to root for Xifeng in her canny awareness or to commiserate with Ping'er: though it takes a while to get there, this novel makes you care at least a little bit about its core group of flawed characters. As I said, there are several love-triangles present, and one of them is among three cousins, but keep in mind that this was written during the 1700s, when different social mores and ideas weren't thought of in the same way as in the modern age.

The third person omniscient POV used does -- thankfully -- keep The Red Chamber from the problem of too many individual, first-person POVs that so many other novels seem suffer from, but it also creates a bit of distance between the reader and some of the characters. I never connected or invested in Baochai, nor Lian, but perhaps that was point because both could be seen as obstacles in the way of happiness for other characters in the novel. Either way, this author takes time and care to present her characters as individual people, pulled by different wants and needs all tied neatly and permanently together due to family. Unifying themes of nostalgia, destiny help to pull all the overall plotlines of The Red Chamber back together for a solidly entertaining debut from this new author.

Jessie (Ageless Pages Reviews) [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2019-03-05]

This is a retelling of the Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber, but I don't know whether Chen does a good job with it or not because I have not yet read the original. But it's certainly something to which I look forward. So, this book follows the ups and downs in the lives of a rich, aristocratic family in China. A Chinese Downton Abbey, so to speak. There is Baoyu, who is the heir to the family, the love of his live, Daiyu, and the girl he would marry, Baochai. The novel works its way through their lives, loves, jealousies, anger, fights, betrayals and misunderstandings to a bittersweet ending.

The story starts off very slowly and it takes ages to really get interested, and the entire cast of characters don't seem to have any distinguishing characteristics. But gradually, they bloom into full fledged people of flesh and blood and you begin to experience their feelings. I really liked the way Chen brought out the intricacies of the relationships and how each person gets a full character arc of their own. It is very satisfying, especially in historical fiction.

Although it's slightly soap-opera-ish, The Red Chamber is interesting in the way it develops the plots most of the time. Each character is complex with their own ambitions, feelings and trials that they face to survive in the family. But even thought the plot line held up well for the most part, the end of the book had something very strange happening - Daiyu was suffering from consumption and she just automatically gets cured just by a change of air!. It was rather disappointing to get such a lame plot at a late stage.

The book is written in the present tense and it took some time to get used to it. But really, the main problem with the book is the usual one I face with historical fiction - anachronism. Women are given choices, children are speaking up against their elders, aristocratic people are doing their own work, etc. I think all this might have been easier for the author to get across instead of devising ways to get messages across between the characters living in a culture where direct speech was frowned upon. I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible for a person from one culture to understand the historical intricacies of another culture. Chen is an American, and her modern Americanism constantly peeks through the pages at every point. At no point did she try and get into the skins of her character, which would really be the only way to understand that it was a very different way of life in Qing China. I am especially enraged at the way the history of women's oppression is erased by almost all HF authors in order to make their romances work. Women. Did. Not. Have. Choices. Period.

That said, this book is worth a read if you don't expect much of cultural and historical realism. The complexity of characters alone make it a worthwhile read.

Kavita [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2012-08-15]

Reading THE RED CHAMBER reminded me of visiting my paternal grandmother, who was forever watching Chinese soap operas with elaborately-costumed and highly made-up players who cried and fought and made pronouncements to dramatic camera angles and music. Whenever we asked what was happening, it was always something over the top. An affair. A secret disclosed. Unknown relations revealed. She was hooked. And though we couldn't follow a word, my sister and I would end up staring at the TV right along with her.

I've never read the Chinese classic DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER, upon which Chen bases her retelling, and--given the original's length and my decreasing attention span--I may never do so, but this book was enthralling enough to make me consider tackling it.

THE RED CHAMBER follows the (mis)fortunes of the Duke of Rongguo's family in the 18th century, with particular emphasis on the lives of the women. If you liked RAISE THE RED LANTERN or Anita Diamant's THE RED TENT (lots of "red" in these titles), you would probably find this book un-put-downable. Characters include the frightening matriarch, the poor relation, the first wife threatened by the upstart servant, the son upon whom much depends, the dutiful daughter, and so on. Secrets abound and intertwined lives lead to unforeseen consequences when the Emperor dies and all is up for grabs.

A couple notes on things which distracted me:

1) The book is told in the present tense. Not my favorite, but I got over it.
2) The sex scenes aren't overwhelmingly numerous, but they are startlingly graphic. Guess that's just the age we live in. I just thought subtlety would have suited the general style of the book more.
3) When it comes to a couple of the characters, there's a lot of telling: "Baochai was reserved and hardly ever spoke about her feelings," etc. Since I thought Chen did a great job of revealing character through dialogue and action, these were at best unnecessary and at worst distracting.
4) I would recommend you pick up a paper copy of this book, rather than an ebook. Flipping back and forth to the list of characters and the family tree can be helpful, and doing it on the Kindle was a nuisance.

If you're looking for a sweeping, absorbing read, I highly recommend this one!

Christina Dudley [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2012-09-13]

I had a few youthful fantasies, of which being an inscrutable Oriental (achieved with jasmine scented face powder and almond oil, as we learn) and a romantic death from consumption featured quite heavily. This was due to extravagant imaginings of the frail, waif-like Lin Daiyu, not so much fair as she is pale, like a bruised gardenia laid to rest. Truth be said, I have always been drawn to "The Dream of the Red Chamber" (or better known in Mandarin as "Hong Lou Meng"), for our willowy high school dance troupe once performed the classic scene of Lin Daiyu burying flowers. Many of us wept in the wings - some deeply moved by the sublime sentiment of returning petals to earth; others like myself were mostly wallowing with the realisation we could never achieve such grace and glory.

Anyway, I digress - never able to persevere through Cao Queqin's original masterpiece, and never brave enough to tackle Hawke's 2400 page translation, I pounced on this contemporary reinterpretation. There is a whole cast of unforgettable characters. Who wants to be born with a silver spoon in the mouth when you can have a piece of flawless jade, like Jia Baoyu? Who is less like a precious hair jewel than Xue Baochai, who is more like a bamboo stick - hollow, dry but undeniably resilient? Then the fiesty Xifeng, punished for adultery with ovarian cancer - I don't know why I'm surprised at how accurate the signs are - the swollen belly with ascites, the jaundiced skin from liver metastases. This is ancient China afterall, where physicians can diagnose everything from just taking your pulse. There is even the use of apricot kernals to treat cancer in the first chapter, you sceptics out there!

2 stars - my honest appraisal if I ruthlessly cast aside rabid enthusiasm!

Snort [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2012-07-10]

The Red Chamber is based on the 18th century China's classic novel, "Dreams of the Red Chamber." Author, Pauline Chen has taken some of the original characters from the book to weave an intriguing tale of life in the opulent women's quarters of a privileged Beijing family of that era. The story follows the lives of three strong women who forge a friendship in a world where they are at the mercy, not only of their husbands, but their older female relatives as well.

For anyone wishing to understand Chinese culture and history of that period, this is a fascinating story. However, it is not an easy read. To begin with, there are so many characters in the family compound that it was necessary to have a glossary to keep them all straight. Also a help was the family tree that gives the main members of the Jia family, and how they are related.

The novel is not a page-turner and with the culture being so unique, it takes time to absorb this book fully. However, it is well written and I enjoyed savoring it over a period of time. If Chinese culture and history is of interest to you, it's a captivating read.

My only complaint is that the story is told in present tense, which is something I personally don't like. But that's just me.

Betty [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2012-08-14]

I wish there were more books like this because I would read them all day long. I absolutely loved this book. You really got to know the characters inside and out. I always look forward to reading about the ancient Chinese. Such a fascinating culture. The theme of course centered around what choices a woman in China in the 1700s had. Very heart wrenching and enlightening.

Jo Anne B [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2012-10-01]

The Red Chamber is an exceptionally written family drama that spans from 1721- 1736 in Beijing that explores the undercurrents of love, loss, self-gratification, betrayal and hope of those who reside in the Jia estate. Inspired by the original Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber, Chen brings to life the strong women in the household during a time where women were severely oppressed. Marriages were arranged by the parents; women were not encouraged to have an education and must never lose face in a household where everyone has secrets and everyone knows everyone's business.

Lady Jia is the matriarch of the family; she is relentless at progressing the family forward in society and doesn't allow sentimentality to impede any decision. Despite the control she expels over the family, it is the men in the family who have access to education, work and concubines. The Red Chamber explores life from the viewpoints of three remarkably different women: Xifeng, Baochi and Daiyu.

Xifeng is a very difficult character to like; she's selfish, punitive towards the servants and fanatical about money. I did really sympathise with her though, she's married to Lian who treats her horribly and after three years of marriage without an heir he takes her lifelong maid and best friend Ping'er as his concubine (second wife). She quickly falls pregnant and Xifeng's status in the family is shaky, leaving her humiliated and bitter.

Another difficult to like character, Baochi is the prototype daughter of Mrs Xue who Lady Jia wishes to wed to her romantic grandson Baoyu. Baochi really doesn't have any true emotional ties within the Jia family, she does have an attraction to Baoyu, but beyond this her feelings are quietly hidden away.

It was Daiyu who was the heart of the story and whom I most connected with. At seventeen she arrives at the Jia mansion as a last request to her late mother and enters a family and lifestyle to which she is unfamiliar with. Her conduct and opinions give away her southern roots and she is quickly outcasted by Lady Jia who senses the instant spark between Daiyu and her cousin Baoyu. Daiyu brings life to the family; she is young and fanciful and dares to hope that she can marry for love not duty.

I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but I was completely absorbed in this novel and whenever I put the book down I was thinking about the characters and what their fate would be. It's by no means an uplifting story but it did evoke emotion in me and I became completely invested in the future of the characters.

The Red Chamber is a complex historical family drama with fascinating characters that I both loved and despised and regardless of my sentiments I was completely drawn into their world. It was not the happily ever after I'd hoped and after a momentary disappointment I was resigned to accept that the ending was befitting to the overall mood of the story and the era and place in which it was set. I highly recommend The Red Chamber to those who appreciate historical, culturally-rich settings with characters who will remain in your thoughts for long after you've put down the book.

Lauren K [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

I can understand the attraction for Western readers, but... [2012-09-02]

As someone who grew up familiar with the original Dream of the Red Chamber, I just want to vocalise the disparity between some of the reviews regarding this book. The Dream of the Red Chamber is one of the four great classics in China, and while I understand and appreciate the author's desire to retell the story for Western audiences, this book reduces an epic to what is essentially a soap-opera. It feels grossly cheapened in that respect. There is still much that is "exotic" in the book for a Western audience, but for a Chinese audience, reading the book felt like reading the script to almost every historical fiction TV drama that has been produced in China for the last 20 years. It lacks depth and exoticness for many Chinese, because we are so familiar with the "historical" or "Asian" details in the book that they read as generic to us and there is very little that is refreshing, thought-provoking or deep.

This aside, the root of my problem with this book stems from the fact that the retelling is simply not done well. It IS unfair to compare this book to the original Dream of the Red Chamber, but I want to compare it to other historical fiction and retellings of classics into novels. While the author of this book is no doubt an intelligent and accomplished woman, I don't find her to be a particularly good storyteller. Perhaps the crux of the issue is that the novel is written in present tense. Stories are very rarely naturally told in this manner - and so the result doesn't feel natural to read. I wasn't drawn into the story itself as much as I would have if I didn't find myself altering the tense as I read it into something more natural in my mind. The sentences don't flow as well and a lot of the mood and pacing that makes for a good novel are lost due to the rigidity of the text.

I also understand that the author wanted to retell the story in a way that is easy and accessible to Western audiences. However, I found that she stripped the story too bare and then tried to add depth of her own. It is clear the author tried to pad on depth by adding the political background of the fall of Ying Di, but I did not feel like that added much to the story, as none of the characters except Uncle Zheng really took time to reflect and interact with that aspect of the book. Furthermore, the injection of what is essentially a modern feminist discussion into the book (the part where the women discover what happened to Silver, and debate about what choices women have) stuck out to me like a sore thumb. I compare this with Golden's Memoirs of a Geishia, which contains both political and social commentary and depth without having to awkwardly insert an overtly modern feminist round table into a historical setting. Rather, the women's issues in Memoirs are shown to us throughout the book, in a subtle but powerful manner that flows with the story, without being obvious or distracting. I also draw a comparison between this novel and Snowflower and a Secret Fan. Snowflower successfully explores in the role of women in both modern and imperial China. The element of nu-shu (women's language) and its importance in the novel, added a degree of meaning and depth for me, as a Chinese reader, that I did not find in The Red Chamber. We see, connect with, and appreciate the intricacies and inner workings of a woman's mind and private life in Snowflower, in a way that The Red Chamber does not offer, despite making the audience privy to the thoughts of the three main female characters.

I felt this book deserved an additional star however, because the author did a better job with the characters of Daiyu and Baoyu than what I imagine most people could. I think a Western audience would find these two characters, as they are depicted in the original Dream, to be supremely unlikeable. Even modern Chinese audiences, particularly a younger generation of women, would find it almost impossible to identify with the "real" Lin Daiyu. She is supremely sensitive, passive aggressive, and spends a good portion of the story either sick or weepy or both. Baoyu is her male counterpart - also sensitive, unattractively effeminate, outrageously, childishly spoiled and prone to bipolar mood shifts. Cao Xueqin, the original author intended Baoyu to portray the decline of the powerful, elite, traditional Chinese families as a result of their wealth and insularity by producing effete and effeminate offspring. Daiyu is essentially a Xi Shi (read: a sickly beauty weeping by a stream as an ideally romantic and tragic female figure), without any of the drama, politics, seduction and bravery in Xi Shi's story. As modern readers, we are far more likely to identify with Baochai and XiFeng, because they are more sensible, pragmatic, and lively. I approached this novel with the hope that with this retelling, both women will meet the happier fate that they deserve. Unfortunately, I think the ending selected by the author sends some rather mixed messages.

In summary, if you are a part of the Western audience unfamiliar with the original tale or this period of Chinese history, I think you enjoy this book and get a lot out of reading it. As for Chinese audiences, however, I think many would find it a hit and a miss.

Jenny Zhang [source: https--www.amazon.com]

Completely Engrossing [2013-03-12]

I have been reading a great deal of Urban Fantasy, and I was very much up for a change of pace. This really hit the spot, as they say. I felt like the characters were cohesive, complex and shown to the reader from enough angles to make them feel alive and real. While they all spoke in the flowery speech considered polite, it was easy to tell their personalities from their particular speech habits. I am often cut-throat in my reviews about dialogue so it's refreshing to be able to compliment, not critique it in a review.

The best thing about this book was not the plot -- because this is a fairly old work the plot has many of the tropes we readers come to expect from this sort of work. They may seem cliched now because so many newer works have aped them. However, the descriptions are astounding -- detailed and precise yet not overlong or exhausting. It always maintains the perfect level to engross and trap the reader but not bore them. The 'movie' in my head was awash with wonderful detail, lush backgrounds and perfect costumes. I really haven't read description this good in a very long time.

However, the one thing I didn't care for was the three or four incidents of anachronism stew. Xifeng had a wrist watch centuries before they came into fashion, Baochai had a few too many modernisms in her speech and the Chinese manners of gift-giving were ignored, possibly to make the work more appropriate for a western audience. If these had not stuck out of the narratives like sudden blotches of bright paint on a somber renaissance portrait, this would have been five stars. UPDATE -- the author has taken the time to address this paragraph in the comments. Please read her replies as they explain a great deal.

VINE VOICE [source: https--www.amazon.com]

A intriguing, mesmerizing story [2012-10-01]

"The Red Chamber" is an emotionally intense book, with characters who display both compassion and cruelty, who are both calculating and vulnerable. Disclaimer: I know the author and her family, so I may not be a neutral reviewer, but I couldn't put the book down once I started reading it, which speaks for itself! The web of intrigue and politics--both within the extended family at the center of the story, and with the larger society--makes for gripping reading.

Pauline Chen describes the lives and thoughts of the female characters in a manner that conveys both the stifling constraints placed on women of that era in China, and the strength and ingenuity of the women in navigating the obstacles placed in their way. Her prose reads naturally, especially in the love scenes--many authors find it hard to write descriptions of intimacy without making the reader cringe, but Pauline manages to hit the right notes skillfully.

There are a lot of characters, and at first I would get lost among the unfamiliar names. Thankfully, the author placed a family tree at the beginning of the book, which I had to make use of several times until I got used to the names.

The novel is a great way of introducing a Western reader to a classic from another culture. In reading some of the other reviews, I can see that people who are familiar with the original Chinese classic think this book doesn't compare to the original. But I don't think that was the author's intent--if it were, she would have produced another translation of the original. Instead, it's somewhat like the relationship of, say, the movie "Cleopatra" to the work of the historian Plutarch--Pauline Chen takes one part of a very long and complex body of work and makes it accessible in her own unique style.

I would highly recommend this book--and don't start reading it too late at night, unless you're ready to stay up all night to finish it!

An Inquiring Reader [source: https--www.amazon.com]

Do Not Buy [2012-09-12]

This book is utter rubbish. There is no feeling for character, time nor place in history. The characters are badly drawn and cliched. Worst of all is the use of Americanisms which are totally inappropriate for a novel set in 18th Century Imperial China. For example, the author has one character saying to another "thank you for not tattling."

This book is an attempt by the author to bring an ending to one of the great books of Chinese literature. Unfortunately, all that the author has managed to do is the literary equivalent of the "restoration" of a religious panel in a church in Europe,as carried out by the 80 year old woman. Buy this book at your peril.

Zach [source: https--www.amazon.com]

--- Over (foto 2): Pauline A. Chen ---

Pauline A. Chen earned her B.A. in classics from Harvard, her J.D. from Yale Law, and her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies from Princeton. She has taught Chinese language, literature, and film at the University of Minnesota and Oberlin College. She is also the author of the children's novel Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas.

[source: https--www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/158606/pauline-a-chen]

Pauline A. Chen is schrijfster van het kinderboek Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas. Ze heeft aan Harvard klassieke talen gestudeerd, aan Yale rechten en aan Princeton Oost-Aziatische studies. Op het ogenblik is ze wetenschappelijk medewerkster aan het Oberlin college in de Verenigde Staten.

[bron: https--foreignrights.debezigebij.nl/auteurs/pauline-chen]

Pauline A. Chen earned her B.A. in classics from Harvard, her J.D. from Yale Law School, and her Ph.D. in East Asian studies from Princeton. She has taught Chinese language, literature, and film at the University of Minnesota and Oberlin College. She is also the author of a novel for young readers, Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas, and lives in Ohio with her two children.

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]

Pauline Chen was born in California, and grew up in Stony Brook, New York. After studying classics at Harvard and law at Yale, she completed a doctorate in Chinese literature at Princeton University. Her dissertation focused on the late Tang poets Du Fu, Li He, and Li Shangyin. She has taught Chinese language, literature, and film at the University of Minnesota and Oberlin College. She is the author of Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas, a novel for young readers. Her essays on Chinese film have appeared in Cineaste and Film Comment. The Red Chamber is her first book for adults, and has been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Polish. Pauline lives in Oberlin, Ohio, with her two children. To learn more about Pauline Chen and THE RED CHAMBER, please visit paulineachen.com.

[source: https--www.amazon.com]