Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Classics (1986), Paperback, 384 pages
Description
"The fifth part of Cao Xueqin's magnificent saga continues to chart the changing fortunes of the Jia dynasty."--Back cover.
User reviews
LibraryThing member mattviews
The much anticipated concluding volume of the epic (if readers have persevered and made this far) settles the fate of our protagonist Jia Baoyu and expounds the nature of passion and illusion. The decadence of the Jia household thus concludes the Dream of the Golden Days. Following the death of the
It is in the midst of the poignant havoc, against this multifarious backdrop that Jia Baoyu slowly comes to his realization about the illusion of passion and resolves to sever the ties with the material world. One by one events come to pass that was riddlingly foretold in the first volume. It seems sad but with expectation that the Twelve Jinling (twelve females who are close to Baoyu) all end up dying or in small circumstances. At the fulfillment of these prophecies, Baoyu weaves through these events like a somnambulist and finally through a dream-vision is awakened to the realization that life itself is but a dream. His grief for Daiyu and his general state of gloom are compounded as he perceives that Daiyu is no ordinary mortal (but a visitor from some immortal realm). Since his life has consisted for the most part of peaceful and pleasant pursuits and he had been protected from too close an acquaintance with real suffering, sudden loss of family fortune and Daiyu make him succumb to despair. Seeing through the human suffering and breaking from the lust-stained passion enlighten him.
While the Jias still cares for the enjoyment of splendor and concerned with the show of grandeur that is at best vanity, Baoyu realizes the predestined attachments of human heart are all of them mere illusions, which are obstacles blocking the spiritual path to joy. This inner change draws him to an unprecedented direction has proceeded insipiently unnoticed until he maintains a detached composure and makes no attempt to offer any solace to the tragic occurrences around the house. The karma has obviously completed its work as Baoyu has attained a clear perception of destiny. After all, THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER is about rising above all life's vices: all our lives we sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of greed, hatred, folly, and passion. The only way out of suffering, according to the working of the karma, is to escape the net of mortal life.
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enamored Lin Daiyu, Baoyu weaves his way through a series of tragic events that plunge the Jia further into disgrace. Mourning bells incessantly resonate throughout the Rong-guo and Ning-guo houses as the financially stricken family prepare to encoffin the Old Lady Jia, Wang Xifeng, and a senior maid who demonstrates the purest essence of virtue and loyalty by following her mistress's footstep to death. There is a Chinese idiom that says "mishap does not occur singly." On top of the Jia's crumbling household and tremendous deficit in the occasion of mourning, robbers break into the Rong mansion and burglarizes all of the Old Lady's belongings the sale of which the family depends upon to pay for the funerals. Majestic police raid the Ning mansion and confiscates property of Baoyu's uncle. Xifeng's loaning out of the Jia's money at exorbitant interests shamefully unveils as the officers find property deeds and notes bearing illegal interest rate, as well as garments and skirts restricted for palace use. Upon the closure of the Ning mansion, Jia She and his son are sentenced to penal servitude in remote region, leaving their women folks in inconsolable grief and desperate grip to seek financial security. It is in the midst of the poignant havoc, against this multifarious backdrop that Jia Baoyu slowly comes to his realization about the illusion of passion and resolves to sever the ties with the material world. One by one events come to pass that was riddlingly foretold in the first volume. It seems sad but with expectation that the Twelve Jinling (twelve females who are close to Baoyu) all end up dying or in small circumstances. At the fulfillment of these prophecies, Baoyu weaves through these events like a somnambulist and finally through a dream-vision is awakened to the realization that life itself is but a dream. His grief for Daiyu and his general state of gloom are compounded as he perceives that Daiyu is no ordinary mortal (but a visitor from some immortal realm). Since his life has consisted for the most part of peaceful and pleasant pursuits and he had been protected from too close an acquaintance with real suffering, sudden loss of family fortune and Daiyu make him succumb to despair. Seeing through the human suffering and breaking from the lust-stained passion enlighten him.
While the Jias still cares for the enjoyment of splendor and concerned with the show of grandeur that is at best vanity, Baoyu realizes the predestined attachments of human heart are all of them mere illusions, which are obstacles blocking the spiritual path to joy. This inner change draws him to an unprecedented direction has proceeded insipiently unnoticed until he maintains a detached composure and makes no attempt to offer any solace to the tragic occurrences around the house. The karma has obviously completed its work as Baoyu has attained a clear perception of destiny. After all, THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER is about rising above all life's vices: all our lives we sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of greed, hatred, folly, and passion. The only way out of suffering, according to the working of the karma, is to escape the net of mortal life.
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LibraryThing member xuebi
And so the Dream of Golden Days draws to a close, and along with it the story of the Jia family - their decadent and luxurious lifestyle, subsequent fall from grace, and their eventual restoration. As this volume's subtitle tells, Jia Baoyu achieves the realisation that his life and its passions
The fifth volume, translated by John Minford and edited by Gao E, systematically and at times predictably completes the lives of the numerous characters; by now though, the story feels somewhat repetitive: Baoyu is thought mad, Baochai admonishes him, Lady Wang and the older women bemoan their fate, the servants are either greedy and traitorous or bemoan their masters' fates. Yet this is not a damning indictment of Cao's masterpiece - just symptomatic of Gao E having trouble re-assembling the story after Cao's death.
I enjoyed the novel and the previous four volumes. They offered an enlightening window into traditional Chinese life during the Qing Dynasty for a wealthy family: their day-to-day lives, homes, literature, beliefs, etc. The translation by Hawkes and Minford is an excellent addition to the English canon and does justice to this sweeping novel.
Altogether, I give the complete series 5 STARS. And now to re-read it once more...
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are but an illusion and the debts of fate foreshadowed in the first volume are finally repaid in full. The fifth volume, translated by John Minford and edited by Gao E, systematically and at times predictably completes the lives of the numerous characters; by now though, the story feels somewhat repetitive: Baoyu is thought mad, Baochai admonishes him, Lady Wang and the older women bemoan their fate, the servants are either greedy and traitorous or bemoan their masters' fates. Yet this is not a damning indictment of Cao's masterpiece - just symptomatic of Gao E having trouble re-assembling the story after Cao's death.
I enjoyed the novel and the previous four volumes. They offered an enlightening window into traditional Chinese life during the Qing Dynasty for a wealthy family: their day-to-day lives, homes, literature, beliefs, etc. The translation by Hawkes and Minford is an excellent addition to the English canon and does justice to this sweeping novel.
Altogether, I give the complete series 5 STARS. And now to re-read it once more...
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LibraryThing member le.vert.galant
The end of a deep and engrossing novel. This beautifully structured work lives up to its reputation. I was entranced.
LibraryThing member Algybama
The accumulated weight of everything is given its due as all the little plots come together pretty neatly - especially the frame story - and it's nice how the climax is concerned with perhaps the largest plot-strand of Bao-yu's court examination. However, a few of the key characters aren't given
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fair treatment - especially Aroma and Xi-Feng, whose fates are a little too hastily conveyed. Though one could argue the curtness with which they are dismissed is tragic in itself, I would've liked to have seen a little more time spent on them. They're two of the most sympathetic and complex characters (and my favorite characters) and they deserved more than what they were given. Sad, Show Less
LibraryThing member yarb
The last couple of chapters contain an absurdly happy ending — notwithstanding all the unhappiness already recorded — but in general I have a lot of sympathy for Gao E’s production of chapters 81-120. Considering the magnitude of his task, to wrap up a story that seemed to be going nowhere
For much of my trip through DoRC I was focused on various supporting characters. Xi Feng, Skybright, Xue Pan, Tan Chun all won me over. But looking back on it all, the one I miss most is young Bao Yu. I loved his haplessness, his last-minute excuses and dissimulations, his sudden “aiyos” whe he realises he’s screwed up which are like Bart Simpson’s “d’oh”. His kindness and real concern for his servants, not an educated veneer but real humanity. And in the end this is what tears him away from the world, his connection to it.
It’s been a wonderful, enriching experience. The second volume is on a par with the second volume of Proust, very similar in its themes too. The slowly melting ice of the third book with its sudden violent cracks is brilliant. The sheer confusion of who’s who, replenished by infusions of new characters who inevitably fall ill, have their pulses taken through curtains, are prescribed incredibly complicated compounds and then either recover or perish. To quote Blackadder, “the endless, bloody, poetry!” Although the poetry translated by Hawkes was generally amazing. The earthly paradise of the garden in its halcyon days.
Sometimes boring, sometimes compulsive, almost always convincing, the Story of the Stone, like all great stories, is the story of life itself
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yet everywhere, to document the dissolution of a dynasty, to please the fans — he did OK.For much of my trip through DoRC I was focused on various supporting characters. Xi Feng, Skybright, Xue Pan, Tan Chun all won me over. But looking back on it all, the one I miss most is young Bao Yu. I loved his haplessness, his last-minute excuses and dissimulations, his sudden “aiyos” whe he realises he’s screwed up which are like Bart Simpson’s “d’oh”. His kindness and real concern for his servants, not an educated veneer but real humanity. And in the end this is what tears him away from the world, his connection to it.
It’s been a wonderful, enriching experience. The second volume is on a par with the second volume of Proust, very similar in its themes too. The slowly melting ice of the third book with its sudden violent cracks is brilliant. The sheer confusion of who’s who, replenished by infusions of new characters who inevitably fall ill, have their pulses taken through curtains, are prescribed incredibly complicated compounds and then either recover or perish. To quote Blackadder, “the endless, bloody, poetry!” Although the poetry translated by Hawkes was generally amazing. The earthly paradise of the garden in its halcyon days.
Sometimes boring, sometimes compulsive, almost always convincing, the Story of the Stone, like all great stories, is the story of life itself
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LibraryThing member bohannon
I started reading this novel a number of months ago after reading an article that suggested it as a good place for westerner's to start familiarizing themselves with Chinese literary culture (and that it has a role something roughly akin to that of shakespeare in English-- ie, the original source
That said it was a fun read as a (very soap opera-y) story, and a great window into another world, and how that world approached all the normal questions of life in ways so fundamentally differently (and yet not) from those of us in the West.
I'm now excited to go read more (the three kingdoms, maybe? Or, shift gears and try the analytics?). Regardless, and highly unusual for me, I fully expect to want to pick this up again in a few years.
(2024 Review # 1)
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of all kinds of idioms, allusions, and recycled story lines) . Such a completely different world and mindset from what I'm used to -- I actually quickly gave in and got a commentary/guide to help me get the allusions and implications I was clearly just not getting. That said it was a fun read as a (very soap opera-y) story, and a great window into another world, and how that world approached all the normal questions of life in ways so fundamentally differently (and yet not) from those of us in the West.
I'm now excited to go read more (the three kingdoms, maybe? Or, shift gears and try the analytics?). Regardless, and highly unusual for me, I fully expect to want to pick this up again in a few years.
(2024 Review # 1)
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Language
Original language
Chinese
Physical description
384 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
014044372X / 9780140443721
Local notes
trade paperback size