This abridged edition introduces readers to the power and drama of the
electrifying classic Chinese novel. One of the great works of Chinese
literature, beloved in East Asia but virtually unknown in the West,
Kingdoms in Peril is an epic historical novel charting the five
hundred years leading to the unification of China under the rule of the
legendary First Emperor. Writing some fourteen hundred years after the
unification, the Ming-era author Feng Menglong drew on a vast trove of
literary and historical documents to compose a gripping narrative
account of how China came to be China.
Here, translated into English for the first time, Kingdoms in Peril
recounts the triumphs and tragedies of those five hundred years, through
stories taken from the lives of the unforgettable characters that
defined and shaped the ages in which they lived. This abridged edition
distills the novel's distinct style and its most dramatic episodes into
a single volume. Maintaining the spirit and excitement of the original
novel, this edition weaves together nine of the most pivotal
storylines--some extremely famous, others less well known. Readers will
glimpse the intensity of tectonic events that shaped everyday lives,
loves, and struggles, with powerful women featuring as prominently in
the novel as they have in Chinese history. There are many historical
works that provide an account of some of these events, but none are as
thrilling and breathtakingly memorable as Kingdoms in Peril.
