Every nation possesses a precious piece of literature that offers a complete, vivid picture of its life, originality and unique national features. In Chinese literature a novel by Cao Xueqin became such an all-embracing, encyclopedic work – an extensive narration of life of several generations of a large aristocratic family, beginning with their rise and following the events and tragic love of the heroes up to the decline of the family. The plot involves hundreds of characters, representatives o
...f various strata of society; the author pays great attention to the inner world of the heroes, emotions and feelings, their state of mind and relations. It is bases on Buddhist idea – life is a dream, full of sorrow and suffering: heroes struggle for their dignity and respect regardless of class representation. Hung Lou Meng (or Dream of the red Chamber) signified a new period of a classic Chinese novel. The complexity of composition, psychological validity of characters’ action, poems that are skillfully interwoven into the thread of the narration – all these make up cogent literary value of the work, a masterpiece of Chinese, and world literature. This volume covers the second part of the novel, beginning with chapter XXV up to the end.
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