This Penguin Classics edition also gives us some illustrations of various characters in places, throughout the tale, which does add an extra element of sorts. In some ways then you can think of this as a Chinese type of King Arthur, although the historical fact here does put it above something which is just fiction, and we can see how the author has also preceded Shakespeare in his ability to create something that is far greater than the original tale or facts. Along with ambitions to gain the seat of Emperor there are also feuds, deceit, revenge, romance and lots of action and adventure, and also tales of magic. This is one of those large books that sweep you up in an alien world to our own, and never releases its grip until the very end. There is also certainly a lot of action here and various rather Machiavellian machinations as various people try to gain control, or usurp positions held by other characters, thus we see revenge and ambition being played out as well here. The characters themselves are quite complex and show the various ranges of human psychology and emotions. The story is complex and has numerous sub-plots and thus even in an abridged form as here there is still very much to take in, so this is not really a book you can whiz through, so please bear that in mind if you do decide to read this.
Taking in events as the Han dynasty was disintegrating and then collapsed so we follow the story for over a hundred years as the land was split into three kingdoms and so on, with power struggles and machinations proceeding all the time.
Considered by the Chinese as their greatest novel it is easy to see why. This is an historical novel as such, and we are not even really sure who wrote it, and although we know the basic story of events is true, from official records this story has also incorporated legend and folklore, as such tales would have been verbally passed on over the generations. Due to this and to give you an overview of the whole tale, its development and so on, I would strongly recommend those coming to this for the first time to read the informative introduction, which also gives illustrations of the main characters. Here we have an abridged version, as the original is very long. Always popular in China this is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature.
0 kommentar(er)
