ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Dream of the Red Chamber, Chinese (Pinyin) Hongloumeng or (Wade-Giles romanization) Hung-lou-meng, novel written by Cao Zhan in the 18th century that is generally considered to be the greatest of all Chinese novels and among the greatest in world literature.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Dream of the Red Chamber can be read in a philosophical, that is, in a Daoist/ Buddhist way: understanding the vanity of life by going through its fullness (of desires, passions and lust).

Detailed explanation-3: -Yet Dream of the Red Chamber, written in the mid-18th century, is the fullest immersion one could hope for into late imperial China, the best access to the minds, hearts and habits of that period, complete in everything from cosmology to cosmetics.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Story of the Stone (c. 1760), also known by the title of The Dream of the Red Chamber, is the great novel of manners in Chinese literature. Divided into five volumes, The Story of the Stone charts the glory and decline of the illustrious Jia family.

Detailed explanation-5: -Dream of the Red Chamber was finally published in print in 1791, but the text is still surrounded by controversy. There is a story that it had been censored because eminent people it satirised had been too thinly disguised. It is also debated whether the text we have is all his.