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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Lovely translation (feels very modern and immediate) and excellently annotated. Nice maps in the back too (though the Xihu one is a little patchy). My only complaint as an old man is that the type is unnecessarily tiny.
emotional
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
slow-paced
I really liked this, though got a bit bored at the bits about bonsai. But the bits about his wife and his relationship with her are super romantic! You feel kind of bad for his kids, though; they seem almost incidental to his life. Also interesting for his & the wife's thing for the singsong girl -- polyamory!
This is one of those novels you want to linger through because it's so reflective (and the extensive notes at the back are totally necessary, so count on each page taking 2x as long to read). Despite plenty of normal guy things (boozing with the bros, mid-level clerical job, hitting on ladies) Shen Fu is anything but your average guy. He did DIY projects with his wife, reflected on the social position of women at the time, and loved growing flowers. He literally spent 10+ pages detailing the ways to grow local blooms. (< That was the only part of the book I sort of had enough of. It reminded me of bit in Moby Dick where Melville carries on about the variety of whales for ages)
The rest of the book is pure gold though. A unique look inside the average life of an average Chinese man in the later part of the 1700s. It's reflective, uniquely told (esp. for Chinese lit) and really beautiful. Funny, sad, everything.
The rest of the book is pure gold though. A unique look inside the average life of an average Chinese man in the later part of the 1700s. It's reflective, uniquely told (esp. for Chinese lit) and really beautiful. Funny, sad, everything.
I like the easygoing prose. I love that Shen loves his wife— the entire book is basically about her and their random leisurely Qing era activities. Yun is very dynamic and her assertiveness, her cross dressing, and her love for that concubine
slow-paced