- Unknown Binding
- ASIN: B0016UNJRE
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
Two brothers, whose names I need not mention here, were both good friends of mine in high school; but after a separation of many years we gradually lost touch. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Two brothers, whose names I need not mention here, were both good friends of mine in high school; but after a separation of many years we gradually lost touch. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Lu Xun may be relatively unknown in the West, but it is difficult to go far in China without being asked 'do you know Lu Xun?'. So much so, that after a few months I was motivated to actually go and read some of his stories.
Initially, I found the collection very strange. The stories are generally disjointing and range between stories with a biting edge of reality and stories so fantastical they float on the borders of utter absurdity. As a
Western reader, the collection at first seemed to me to be a little inaccessable. Some of the stories, such as Medicine (about a women who needs medicine for her sick child) are instantly gripping, but others (such as 'a madman's diary') took me a long time to appreciate.
Given some work, however, the stories did grow on me significantly. The variety of the stories is incredible: the mix of Chinese folklore with bitter realities, of realistic characters and fantastical storylines and of morals with pure immorality make this a fascinating collection. If you are a general reader looking for something with a difference, then I can reccomend this collection - but with the warning that they are in now way conventional and that not everyone would enjoy them.
Over that, this small collection seems to clearly display an author who was desprately disillusioned with his society. The works often show the effects of poverty, corruption, feudalism and of a broken society in need of reform. At times, the stories seem designed to instil an anger with feudalist China, an anger which Lu Xun evidently felt himself. They really do smell strongly of stories written at a time when the country was on the edge of revolution, when radical left wingers were beginning to analyse and criticise pre-revolution chinese society. Because of this, if like me you are looking at this book because you are trying to understand Chinese history a little better, then this book is invaluable in many ways. Textbooks are one thing, but seeing old China through the eyes of a 1920's revolutionary is an invaluable experience in understanding both what caused the radical changes of the 1940's and 50's and (perhaps) help explain the continuing support for the party that changed the country.
Overall, this was actually a great collection of stories and I'm glad I read them. A careful reader could probably glean some of the cultural differences between Chinese and Western literature and storytelling (although this isn't really my field), and perhaps a more open minded reader than me would fall in love with the Chinese style completely. This collection is certainly worth reading for more reasons than to simply be able to say 'I've read Lu Xun'.
Initially, I found the collection very strange. The stories are generally disjointing and range between stories with a biting edge of reality and stories so fantastical they float on the borders of utter absurdity. As a
Western reader, the collection at first seemed to me to be a little inaccessable. Some of the stories, such as Medicine (about a women who needs medicine for her sick child) are instantly gripping, but others (such as 'a madman's diary') took me a long time to appreciate.
Given some work, however, the stories did grow on me significantly. The variety of the stories is incredible: the mix of Chinese folklore with bitter realities, of realistic characters and fantastical storylines and of morals with pure immorality make this a fascinating collection. If you are a general reader looking for something with a difference, then I can reccomend this collection - but with the warning that they are in now way conventional and that not everyone would enjoy them.
Over that, this small collection seems to clearly display an author who was desprately disillusioned with his society. The works often show the effects of poverty, corruption, feudalism and of a broken society in need of reform. At times, the stories seem designed to instil an anger with feudalist China, an anger which Lu Xun evidently felt himself. They really do smell strongly of stories written at a time when the country was on the edge of revolution, when radical left wingers were beginning to analyse and criticise pre-revolution chinese society. Because of this, if like me you are looking at this book because you are trying to understand Chinese history a little better, then this book is invaluable in many ways. Textbooks are one thing, but seeing old China through the eyes of a 1920's revolutionary is an invaluable experience in understanding both what caused the radical changes of the 1940's and 50's and (perhaps) help explain the continuing support for the party that changed the country.
Overall, this was actually a great collection of stories and I'm glad I read them. A careful reader could probably glean some of the cultural differences between Chinese and Western literature and storytelling (although this isn't really my field), and perhaps a more open minded reader than me would fall in love with the Chinese style completely. This collection is certainly worth reading for more reasons than to simply be able to say 'I've read Lu Xun'.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
