A Dream of Red Mansions

A Dream of Red Mansions by Tsao Hsueh-Chin. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9787119016436.

Hong Lou Meng, sometimes translated as The Dream of the Red Chamber, the great classical Chinese novel written in the mid-eighteenth century during the reign of Emperor Chienlung of the Ching Dynasty, has been widely popular throughout the last two hundred years and more. The four great houses of Chia, Shih, Wang and Hsueh described in this novel were typical basic political units of feudal society. Such families were linked with the court above and the local officials below to form a network of control with the feudal autocratic state power as its centre. The book depicts the inevitable doom of these families, riven as they are by fierce struggles among themselves and in society, focusing on the tragic love between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu and also provides a panorama of the lives of people of various levels in the degenerating empire.