Romance of the Times (Complete Two Volumes) (Ancient Novel Reading Series)

Author: Wen Kang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, a new genre of popular fiction emerged in China—children and heroes novels. Its representative work is The Story of the Heroic and Charming. Wen Kang, born into an Eight Banners family, wrote this story of a complete and satisfying tale during his later years of poverty and boredom. He was not content with the heroic display of prowess and the poetic exchanges of love between men and women, but instead gathered the virtues of heroes, heroines, and great sages into his beloved character, the thirteen-year-old girl, Sister Thirteen. Meanwhile, he had the young nobleman An Ji study and take imperial examinations, achieving continuous success, ultimately becoming a high-ranking official, enjoying immense wealth and honor in the mortal world.
The special strength of The Story of the Heroic and Charming lies in the vivid, elegant, witty, and humorous vernacular. Wen Kang wrote in Beijing dialect, incorporating a wealth of authentic colloquial expressions. The liveliness, expressiveness, wit, and playfulness of the language often make readers forget the simplistic and shallow nature of the story's themes, immersing them instead in the joy brought by the brilliant prose. The dialogue in the novel is particularly outstanding. Wen Kang must have carefully studied the tones, postures, and psychological activities of various characters in real life, so the conversations in the novel are lifelike, with each person sounding and acting true to their character. Describing it as "captivating" is truly most fitting.