Dream of the Red Chamber

Rating:
Summary: Greatest story
Review: This is one of the greatest stories and the music to this is even more wonderful!

Rating:
Summary: novels are the best way to learn history
Review: This novel allows the reader to enter a world that is almost entirely alien, giving a window not only into courtly aristocratic life in the Qing dynasty, but also into religious and superstitious belief. THe themes are love, destiny, and social position. I constantly thought of the best of Balzac as I read this, transported into the past and learning deeply what history books can never truly offer. This is a wonder.