Part one of my three-part series about Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin. This is one of my favourite books, and one I think many more people in the West should know about and appreciate. It’s a beautiful and deep story, focusing on a small world but still encompassing so much of human life. If you have any interest in Chinese culture, it is a must-read, and if you don’t, reading this book will likely develop within you an interest you didn’t know you had.
I chose to divide the episode into three full-length parts, since it is such a large book and there is much to discuss. In this episode, I provide an introduction to the novel: its setting, themes, and major characters. In particular, I focus on the initial frame story, and what it means for our further understanding of the novel, and then go on to discuss Jia Baoyu, the novel’s principal character, as well as Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, who form with him a sort of love triangle. This episode is a great place to start if you have no experience with the novel, as I only focus on events in the first volume.
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