The Dream of the Red Chamber (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time - #56] Kindle Edition

It is one of the most impressive literary artworks I have ever been through. The life of one of the most prominent families during the Qing Dinasty is depicted with such a remarkable finesse and delicacy as to make the reader aware of the refinement of Chinese culture. Specially recommended for those who would like to be introduced to Chinese history by the hand of one of the finest writers of all times.

Of course, this is a superior novel that's translated very well, indeed. However, this edition has been severely edited to the size of a novelette, which rather defeats the purpose of this long and detailed work. In fact, reducing the size of the work is pointless, even as an introduction.Read the first volume of this work to give you a real feeling for the book's complexity.

did not read book yet but I know I will love it

OMG the translation for this book was awful!! I am sorry, but I would not dream of giving this book a positive review.

Not my style!

This addition is just a repackaging of the freely available 19th century public domain translation, which translation, by the way, is not even complete. Don't waste your money.

This is the worst of the several English translations of this book (Story of the Stone and A Dream of Red Mansions are much better). This version is also free from gutenberg. Why is amazon charging for it?

If you are thinking you are getting the book that is twice the length of war and peace. Then this is not it.This version is a tiny Penguin, that can fit well in a shirt pocket. The penguins classics translation is apparently split across 5 novels.I would recommend that if interested in this book to double check the details, especially number of pages.

I heard this is a very famous widely read book; it's style (translation) is difficult for me, and I couldn't grasp itspremise

Terrible translation, so bad it's almost funny.

This is not one of the more highly regarded translations of the book, having been done by a consular official around 1900 and uses a lot of Victorian slang which in some ways adds to its slang. It also does not appear to be complete and just fizzles out. There is a cast of over 400 characters with similar names so it gets confusing at times. Fascinating description of life in China though.

:((