What to read after The Dream of the Red Chamber?

The first realistic novel in Chinese, The Dream of the Red Chamber is a vast, abundantly peopled chronicle of a noble family in the 18th century, rich, powerful, singled out for generations by imperial favor. But the splendor of enchanting gardens and pleasure pavilions and a daily life of the most sophisticated refinements hide the symptoms of decline and self-destruction. A decaying civilization of great complexity displays its virtues and vices with an intimacy that is wholly enthralling. Characters and scenes are magnificently realized: the ruling matriarch, vigorous and earthy to the point of coarseness; her son, a strict, inflexible Confucian and stern disciplinarian; her grandson Pao Yu, the hero of the story, neurotic, brilliant, effeminate, and happy only in the company of young girls; and Pao Yu's sisters and cousins, who live with him in the Park of Delightful Vision. Great occasions of the family's social glory are set in telling contrast against the catastrophes that nearly destroy the proud house. Yet beneath all the lively and glittering pageant is a strangely mystical mood, an all-pervading sense of the transitoriness of things earthly. Though immensely popular in China and long considered the peak of Chinese fictional literature, The Dream of the Red Chamber seemed inaccessible to the Western reader, for it presented almost insuperable difficulties to the translator. Of various attempts at translation, Dr. Franz Kuhn's version is the only truly successful one : its style and presentation bring the novel alive, and its excellence has been recognized by leading sinologists; hence it has been made the basis for this English translation by Florence and Isabel McHugh.