Rating: 
Summary: Exotic Oriental soap-opera
Review: -------------------------------
"China's finest novel" per the blurber, and many others. Pretty darned good, with a fabulous opener:
"When the goddess Nugua undertook to repair the Dome of Heaven, she
fashioned at the Great Mythical Mtn under the Nonesuch Bluff 36,501
pieces of stone, each 120 ft high and 240 ft around. Of these she used
only 36,500 and left the remaining piece in the shadows of the Green
Meadows Pk. But the divine hands of Nugua had touched off a spark of
life in the Stone and endowed it with supernatural powers..."
Dream of the Red Chamber (vt The Story of the Stone) was an 18th century trunk novel, written by an upper-class Chinese whose family had fallen on hard times.
Beyond the opening, Red Chamber has few fantastic elements [1]. It's the
story of a dysfunctional ruling-class family, and a literary daydream
of how the author's family life might have been, had their fortunes
been better. But the life of an 18th century Chinese family is exotic
enough, it might as well be on Planet Hughart.... But Red Chamber lacks
Hughart's absurdist tone, and Kai Lung's arch Chinoiserie mannerisms. The best sfnal analog is Cordwainer Smith <www.cordwainer-smith.com>. The story is told pretty straight, and reflects all the 18th century Han
virtues and vices: love of family, love of ceremony, superstitiousness,
callousness, greed, corruption, violence and pettiness. Hmm, not so
far from the Western 18th C. norm, at that ;-}
So, if you're in the mood for an exotic Oriental soap-opera, check out
_Dream of the Red Chamber_.
Note that the Wang translation has a handy "cheat-sheet" for the major characters -- which is good if, like me, you're easily confused by Chinese names, nicknames, pet-names etc etc. And, to my eye, this is the best short version around. But, feel free to go for the whole enchilada!
[1] I forgot to mention, the Stone became a jade good-luck amulet worn by Our Hero.
Happy reading!
Pete Tillman
Google Groups for the complete review plus links
Rating: 
Summary: Do yourself a favor -
Review: Although this translation is concise and contained in one volume, the Penguin Books publication of this work (in that version, titled first as "Story of the Stone") is an infinitely better translation - the poetry is kept intact and the story is in full, instead of condensed for speed. In addition, the maids - who frequently outnumber the mistresses and masters in the plot line - are introduced to the reader with names in English, which makes the story a little easier to follow.If you really like this story and have not read the unabridged version, please do yourself a favor and find the Penguin publications. I love this novel, but there are better translations.
Rating:
Summary: Do yourself a favor -
Review: Although this translation is concise and contained in one volume, the Penguin Books publication of this work (in that version, titled first as "Story of the Stone") is an infinitely better translation - the poetry is kept intact and the story is in full, instead of condensed for speed. In addition, the maids - who frequently outnumber the mistresses and masters in the plot line - are introduced to the reader with names in English, which makes the story a little easier to follow. If you really like this story and have not read the unabridged version, please do yourself a favor and find the Penguin publications. I love this novel, but there are better translations.
Rating: 
Summary: A very drastic abridgement of an already-abridged translatio
Review: Chi-Chen Wang published an abridged translation of "Dream of the Red Chamber" (also known as "A Dream of Red Mansions" and "The Story of the Stone") in 1929; in 1958 he extensively expanded and revised his translation, to about 550 pages in length. This is only a fraction of the Chinese text, which runs more than three times this length. The next year, Anchor (a subsidiary of Doubleday, which is now owned by Bantam) published this translation in paperback -- but had abridged it, to less than 300 pages! It's a very skillful translation, but a more drastic abridgement than the publisher acknowleges. I would look at the Penguin edition (translated as "The Story of the Stone," in five volumes) or the edition published by the Chinese Government (translated as "A Dream of Red Mansions," in three volumes) rather than this one.
Rating:
Summary: Please learn Chinese before you read this story
Review: I am a Chinese student. Dream of the Red Chamber is my favorite novel, and it is definitely one of the greatest novel in the world. I've read the English version of this book as well, but I think the Chinese version is much better than the English one. Because this is a story happened in ancient China, 1700s, many of the poems in it can never exactly translate into English. The meanings of most characters' names can never show in the English version, either. For example, Chia Pao-yu, Chia means false in Chinese, yu means jade, Lin Tai-yu, Lin means forest and so on. If you don't know the special meanings of the characters' names, you can never understand the relationship between them. However, in the English version of this book, the names of the charaters are only the pronunciations.
So if you really want to understand this fantastic story, the only advice I can give you is learning Chinese!
Rating:
Summary: fascinating
Review: I am not usually a fan of love stories and slow plots (which is exactely what The Dream of the Red Chamber is). To my surprise, Hong Lou Meng is exceptionally wonderful. The characters are complex and lifelike. The plots are subtle yet intrigueing and gated to anicent Chinese Culture. This may be an anicent story, but because love is eternity, it is very much relatable. I don't want to give out spoilers but most people should know it is a sad story, and yet holds qualities of triumph and love. Read the English version then learn chinese and read the chinese version (coz it's much better!) Teehee. :)
Rating:
Summary: it's not only a love story
Review: it is a story of a stone, of a family, of the society of old china. The romatic relations are only part of the story. it is a story difficult to start, cos too long, and too much old terms and especially for those non-chinese reader may find it really difficuit and even boring. you will find it boring not because it IS boring, but because you don't understand. try to put more time on it and try to read it agian and again. you will find more and understand more. for i myself, i have read it for 3 times. one of the greatest book i even read. if you are a chinese, u have to read it. if you are not a chinese, you will know more about chinese culture and chinese phillosophy. hopo you will be touch. at least i am.
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous
Review: It is difficult to explain how one of the most boring books I have ever read is also one of the most fascinating. This is truly a universal story, on one level, the story of undying love, a real soap opera with two girls competing for one boy. The fascinating part comes from the wealth of detail re the daily life of a wealthy family in the China of several hundred years ago. This is a worthwhile book and I recommend it to anyone with the patience to read it.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful novel
Review: The 18th century novel, Hongloumeng, remains the greatest Chinese novel ever written, unsurpassed in its depiction of individuals and families, human striving, and stellar literary values. It may be read on many levels, as a love story or social history, as a philosophical musing on the futility of human existence, and a repository of Chinese artistic and literary values. The translation under review is a sharply abridged version that advances the plot line by eliminating many of the minor characters, most of the poetry, and a great deal of the detailed descriptions of daily life in an upper class Chinese family. Those seeking a full appreciation of the novel, especially its literary value, should turn to the full translation, which goes by the title Story of the Stone. However, the full complete translation is a multivalued piece, almost 2,000 pages in length. What you get with this translation is a good feel for the main characters, especially the love triangle, and for the social dynamics within the family. The result in a lovely read that will inspire you to compare this abridge version with a fuller version to see what you missed. I still use this translation in my history courses, but I use it for social history. My colleagues in literature prefer to use volume 1 of the Story of the Stone for their classes.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: The best novel ever written, in my opinion. The story is extremely complex. There are many subtle points that are easy to miss, but it is fun to read between the lines.
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