The little white attic

1/ Officially titled Metamorphoses by Lucius Apuleius but now mostly known as The Golden Ass  ( Asinus aureus ), this novel is interesting ...

In an earlier blog post, I wrote “I actually had more trouble trying to understand the characters in The Tale of Genji (about 1,000 years ol...

1/ Amidst all the shock and horror on twitter over people never having heard of The Odyssey , arose a new quarrel about Emily Wilson’s trans...

Under my last blog post, I got a comment from Thomas Parker asking how I selected translations, so let’s jot down some thoughts.  1/ Anyone ...

1/ As I’m reading Don Quixote , it may be a good idea to examine the long-held view that Don Quixote is the first modern novel, and the re...

2020 somehow became my year of East Asian literature and I’ve just realised that I forgot to put up a list of the works I read. Here it is: ...

If you’ve been reading my blog or following me on twitter, you may have guessed correctly that the 2 greatest novels I’ve read this year are...

1/ Let’s again compare Hong lou meng and The Tale of Genji , in terms of characterisation. Both novels have a large scope and have about 40...

1/ I like that the widow Lý Hoàn (Li Wan) is raised to be a traditional woman in Chinese society, to have a very limited education and to kn...

1/ In chapter 24, 2 new servants are introduced.  The first one is Uyên Ương (Yuanyang) , a servant of Giả Mẫu (Jia Mu) the grandmother. She...

On 13/11, I put aside Hong lou meng out of annoyance, then spent several days reading Naomi by Tanizaki. I returned to Cao Xueqin on 19/11...

1/ In chapters 12-14, there are several deaths :  - Giả Thụy (Jia Rui), who has a desperate crush on Vương Hy Phượng (Wang Xifeng), wife o...