Chapter 9 Dreams and Plums of World Literature: The Honglou meng and Jin Ping Mei in English (1827–1939)
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Abstract
This chapter examines claims made of Chinese novels in the paratexts of published English translations in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. It argues that apologies for those translations created a rubric for evaluating novels of world literature, that consequently enabled novels to serve as windows unto other cultures. Implicit or explicit evaluations of these novels reified critiques of culture. Despite the Honglou meng’s status as a masterwork and its indebtedness to the Jin Ping Mei, in English The Golden Lotus and Adventures of Hsimen seemed more modern with its gritty realism, than Dream of the Red Chamber, which relied on a supernatural frame. Translators and marketers wanted readers to view these novels as artifacts that were both foreign and familiar: masterpieces of world literature and also accessible works of popular culture.