Three Kingdoms: Chinese Classics (The Romance of Thee Kingdoms) (Classic Novel in 4-Volumes) (No. 1-4) (Paperback)
- Author: Luo Guanzhong
- Translator: Moss Roberts
- Paperback: 2340 pages
- Publisher: Foreign Languages Press (January 1, 2005)
- Language: English
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Inside Flap
“Three Kingdoms gives us the Iliad of China. First of the five great works of traditional prose fiction, this master narrative transforms history into epic and has thereby educated and entertained readers of five centuries with unforgettable exemplars of martial and civic virtue, of personal fidelity and political treachery. Moss Roberts’s translation is of surpassing excellence and impeccable scholarship. It should delight and captivate Western readers for many years to come.”–Anthony C. Yu, University of Chicago
“Moss Roberts’s elegant and powerful translation of China’s most important historical romance has a stunning directness that aptly conveys the dramatic boldness of the original episodic narrative. English readers may now finally understand why this 15th-century novel so strategically shaped the political worldview of generations of Chinese.”–Frederic Wakeman, University of California, Berkeley –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From the Back Cover
“Simply, a terrific story . . . an absorbing, rewarding, and majestic novel.” (John S. Service, Center for Chinese Studies, Berkeley) –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Luo Guanzhong (1330s-1400s) was a novelist and dramatist who played an important role in the development of Chinese popular fiction.
Moss Roberts, born in New York, is Porfessor of Chines at New York University.
In addition to Chinese language, he has taught Chinese philosophy and classical Chineseliterature, modern Chinese and Japanese literature and Vietnamese history and culture.
Prof. Roberts is a member of the Columbia University Oriental Thought and Research Institute, a director of the Journal of Asian Scholars and a member of the Oriental Research Society of America.
He has many translations and publications, including: Three Kingdoms (abridged edition, 1976), Epic and Theatre in China (1976), Chinese
Three Kingdoms: Chinese Classics (The Romance of Thee Kingdoms) (Classic Novel in 4-Volumes) (No. 1-4) (Paperback)
“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.” Echoing the rhythms of Chinese history itself, the monumental tale Three Kingdoms begins. As important for Chinese culture as the Homeric epics have been for the West, this fourteenth-century masterpiece continues to be loved and read throughout China today.
Three Kingdoms: Chinese Classics (The Romance of Thee Kingdoms) (Classic Novel in 4-Volumes) (No. 1-4) (Paperback)
Three Kingdoms portrays a fateful moment at the end of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) when the future of the Chinese empire lay in the balance. Fearing attacks by three rebellious states, the emperor sent out an urgent appeal for support. In response, three young men – the aristocratic Liu Xuande, the fugitive Lord Guan, and the pig butcher Zhang Fei – met to swear eternal brotherhood and fealty to their beleaguered country. Their vow set in motion the series of events that ultimately resulted in the collapse of the Han. Writing centuries later, Luo Guanzhong drew on, often-told tales of this turbulent period to fashion a sophisticated narrative of loyalty and treachery, triumph and defeat, that came to epitomize all that was best and worst in the life of his country. Illustrated.
Three Kingdoms: Chinese Classics (The Romance of Thee Kingdoms) (Classic Novel in 4-Volumes) (No. 1-4) (Paperback)
The Romance of Thee Kingdoms Review
“A martial epic with an astonishing fidelity to history, which has been translated now into lively English by Moss Roberts. . . . The subject matter of Three Kingdoms has long held an extraordinary grip on the Chinese imagination. . . . The great achievement of the author . . . was to match historiography with fiction and gain a synergistic effect from the combination of elite and popular tradition.” — Patrick Hanan, New York Times Book Review –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.