The Story of the Stone(also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber),
completed in the mid-eighteenth century by Cao Xuegin, is considered
China's greatest novel--but its length and narrative complexity have
proven daunting to many modern readers. Now, esteemed scholar of Asian
literature Dore J. Levy introduces this timeless work to first-time
readers, while also presenting a new method of comparative
interpretation for advanced students and scholars. Drawing from literary
theory, sociology, religion, and medicine, Levy explores how the classic
novel confronts the chasm between social, emotional, and spiritual
ideals and their translation into day-to-day reality.
This illuminating work unpacks The Story of the Stone based on the
interpretation of four major themes: the inversion of traditional family
dynamics, which constitutes the novel's social framework; the function
of illness and medicine in a society where Buddhist notions of karma and
retribution exist alongside pragmatic notions of the human body that
make up traditional Chinese medicine; the role of poetry in the social
structure of dynastic Chinese society; and the use of poetry as a
vehicle for spiritual liberation
