Between Noble and Humble: Cao Xueqin and the Dream of the Red Chamber- Edited by Ronald R. Gray and Mark S. Ferrara- Translated by Liangmei Bao

By Mark S. Ferrara, Zhou Ruchang, Ruchang Zhou

Book Overview

Between Noble and Humble: Cao Xueqin and the Dream of the Red Chamber (, literally New Biography of Cao Xueqin) is a translation of a scholarly work by the famous mainland Chinese critic Zhou Ruchang. Written for the Western reader, it historicizes the life and times of the Chinese novelist Cao Xueqin (c. 1715-1763) and comprehensively introduces the origins of the novel Dream of the Red Chamber ( Honglou meng ). This translation is unique because it offers the first book-length biography of Cao Xueqin in English. Zhou carefully historicizes the decline of the once illustrious Cao clan, and he demonstrates how Cao Xueqin's own childhood experiences in a wealthy bondservant family during the Qing dynasty profoundly informed the encyclopedic narrative that he would later write. In Between Noble and Humble , Zhou also offers intriguing and controversial theories about Honglou meng based on decades of careful research, for instance, that the famous commentator Red Inkstone was in fact a female relative of Cao Xueqin.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1433104075
• ISBN13: 9781433104077
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publi
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"