Modernist Fiction, Its Origins and Beyond... and other stuff

Please join us for a discussion and read through over the next year on Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, sometimes shortened to Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. The six volumes cover, from 98 to 1590, the peak of the Roman Empire, the history of early Christianity and its emergence as the Roman state religion, the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the rise of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane and the fall of Byzantium, as well as discussions on the ruins of Ancient Rome.

Online Text Link:
https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/25717/pg25717-images.html#vol01

Amazon Purchase Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Decline-Empire-Volumes-Everymans-Library/dp/0307700763

We will begin a Chinese Literature Seminar starting in March 2023 to December 2025 where we will read the Six Classical Chinese Novels along with the 120 Short Stories of the San Yan. The Six Classical Novels of Chinese Literature consisting of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West, Dream of the Red Chamber, the Scholars, and the Plum in the Golden Vase are widely considered among the greatest and longest novels ever written. In this fifth and final part of this new series, we will now try to read the Dream of the Red Chamber.

Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou Meng) or The Story of the Stone (Shitou Ji) is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature, it is known for its psychological scope, and its observation of the worldview, aesthetics, life-styles, and social relations of 18th-century China.

The intricate strands of its plot depict the rise and decline of a family much like Cao’s own and, by extension, of the dynasty itself. Cao depicts the power of the father over the family, but the novel is intended to be a memorial to the women he knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants. At a more profound level, the author explores religious and philosophical questions, and the writing style includes echoes of the plays and novels of the late Ming, as well as poetry from earlier periods.

Cao apparently began composing it in the 1740s and worked on it until his death in 1763 or 1764. Copies of his uncompleted manuscript circulated in Cao's social circle, under the title Story of a Stone in slightly varying versions of eighty chapters. It was not published until nearly three decades after Cao's death, when Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan (程偉元), edited the first and second printed editions under the title Dream of the Red Chamber in 1791–92, adding 40 chapters. It is still debated whether Gao and Cheng composed these chapters themselves and the extent to which they did or did not represent Cao's intentions. Their 120 chapter edition became the most widely circulated version. The title has also been translated as Red Chamber Dream and A Dream of Red Mansions. "Redology" is the field of study devoted to the novel.

We will be using the Hawkes and Minford translation but any translation will suffice. Please read Chapters 51-53.

Volume 1:
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Stone-Dream-Chamber-Vol/dp/0140442936/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=dream+of+the+red+chamber+hawkes&qid=1659417305&sr=8-1

Volume 2:
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Stone-Vol-Crab-Flower-Club/dp/0140443266/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=dream+of+the+red+chamber+hawkes&qid=1659417305&sr=8-6

Volume 3:
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Stone-Dream-Chamber-Warning/dp/0140443703/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=dream+of+the+red+chamber+hawkes&qid=1659417305&sr=8-2

Volume 4:
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Stone-Dream-Chamber-Vol/dp/0140443711/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=dream+of+the+red+chamber+hawkes&qid=1659417305&sr=8-11

Volume 5:
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Stone-Dream-Chamber-Vol/dp/014044372X/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=dream+of+the+red+chamber+hawkes&qid=1659417305&sr=8-3