Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Penguin Classics)
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Product Description
The Strange Tales of Pu Songling (1640-1715) are exquisite and amusing miniatures that are regarded as the pinnacle of classical Chinese fiction. With their elegant prose, witty wordplay and subtle charm, the 104 stories in this selection reveal a world in which nothing is as it seems. Here a Taoist monk conjures up a magical pear tree, a scholar recounts his previous incarnations, a woman out-foxes the fox-spirit that possesses her, a child bride gives birth to a thimble-sized baby, a ghostly city appears out of nowhere and a heartless daughter-in-law is turned into a pig. In his tales of humans coupling with shape-shifting spirits, bizarre phenomena, haunted buildings and enchanted objects, Pu Songling pushes back the boundaries of human experience and enlightens as he entertains.
About the Author
PU SONGLING (1645-1715) was a poor, undistinguished scholar who had an uneventful life. He took the lowest degree, the bachelor's, before he was twenty, but ten years later, he still had not succeeded in passing the second, the master's degree, due to his neglect of the standard fields of academic study. His loss of personal status is the world's gain, however, because his overriding interest was in tales of the supernatural, and his collected works, the bible of Chinese supernatural folktales.
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First Sentence
Tan Jinxuan, a first-degree graduate of my home district of Zichuan, was a great believer in Taoist yoga. Read the first page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tan Jinxuan, a first-degree graduate of my home district of Zichuan, was a great believer in Taoist yoga. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is definitely in my top 5 (fiction) books of all time. A collection of exquisite tales of the mystical, esoteric and just plain bizarre which has a very profound effect on the consciousness of the reader. The introduction, notes and glossary are also very useful in giving an insight into some of the often perplexing details in the stories. As said in the introduction an English translation of the original can never do the tales real justice but the translator has done a commendable job. Maybe this book is not to everybodys taste, but as I have an interest in Eastern (particularly Chinese and Japanese) religion, culture, mythology and literature, this is 'right up my street'and very helpful in many ways.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Before picking this up in the British Museum bookshop, I had never heard of Pu Songling, and I'm very glad I made such a wonderful find. These tales are extremely readable, fascinating and charming miniatures which impress the reader with a sense of the author's quirky humour and wit. They will appeal to anyone interested in folk tales, the more subtle type of ghost story (think M. R. James or J. Sheridan Le Fanu) or tales of the uncanny: there is a touch of refinement here that reminds me of Nathaniel Hawthorne's tales. The stories give a strong sense of a time when anything was possible, when the whole world was imbued with spirit and infused with magical possibilities.
This edition presents selected Strange Tales, delicate and understated as they often are, in a context which gives valuable insight into the literary tradition of which they are a part. The wealth of secondary material included in this volume, far from hampering one's enjoyment, is itself intriguing and I found myself wishing for more extracts from the copious body of scholarly commentary on the Strange Tales. Although this collection is reasonably sturdy, and will supply bedtime reading for quite a while, I could quite happily sit down to a complete translation - I hope another equally well-produced volume comes our way soon.
This edition presents selected Strange Tales, delicate and understated as they often are, in a context which gives valuable insight into the literary tradition of which they are a part. The wealth of secondary material included in this volume, far from hampering one's enjoyment, is itself intriguing and I found myself wishing for more extracts from the copious body of scholarly commentary on the Strange Tales. Although this collection is reasonably sturdy, and will supply bedtime reading for quite a while, I could quite happily sit down to a complete translation - I hope another equally well-produced volume comes our way soon.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a collection to dip in to again and again. The "Strange Tales" vary from tales of "fox spirits" and the supernatural, to reports of strange natural phenomena and simply amusing tales of the "a friend of a friend" type. The stories range in size from a single paragraph to extended short stories, and the thematic range is wide. I found reading tale after tale far less effective than dipping in according to the time available - a short page-long tale over a cup of coffee gets you back to work with a spring in your step, while a single longer short story can fill a pleasant early evening.
Fox spirits appear again and again, and the introduction is useful in giving a sense of their position in Chinese culture - not ghosts in the European sense - and it is worth reading through the introduction either before reading the tales themselves, or dipping into it as you go. But the tales are such fun and so well told that you don't need an in-depth (or even basic) knowledge of seventeenth-century Chinese culture to enjoy them.
This volume of tales is only a selection from Pu Songling's whole work, and it left me pining for more.
Fox spirits appear again and again, and the introduction is useful in giving a sense of their position in Chinese culture - not ghosts in the European sense - and it is worth reading through the introduction either before reading the tales themselves, or dipping into it as you go. But the tales are such fun and so well told that you don't need an in-depth (or even basic) knowledge of seventeenth-century Chinese culture to enjoy them.
This volume of tales is only a selection from Pu Songling's whole work, and it left me pining for more.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio
I would not have heard of this book had not Amazon pestered me with one of their (usually) wretched recommendations!!! Read more
Published 11 months ago by Graham
Chinese short stories
Enigmatic, spooky, of their time. This collection of short stories is a cross between folklore and ghost tales. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Wilson
Pick'n'mix of the unexpected
The previous reviewer is right to say that this is something you pick up and come back to. It's a collection of (sometimes very) short stories, mostly about fox spirits and... Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2009 by Proops
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