All human life is there

So, I have managed to read volume 1 of the Penguin Classics edition of The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin translated by David Hawkes ( a monumental task!), 525 pages in total. This sounds like a daunting task but this book is surprisingly easy to read. For my heading above I have borrowed the motto of the late, not much lamented, News of the World, because, just like that old Sunday red top, The Story of the Stone seems to cover all aspects of human life from the grand to the seedy. If I mention a few: family feuds; witchcraft; unrequited love leading to suicide; homosexuality; imperial concubines: well, that's enough to give you the general idea. The plot is woven around the growing up of an idle young rich boy and the girls who surround him, both relatives and servants, and beyond them, a huge extended family and their retainers, extending outward into the general community that depends on the wealthy family, and upward as far as the Imperial Court. The structure of the novel is a series of interlinked episodes in the lives of the main characters and a large supporting cast. You might call it an aristocratic Coronation Street, set in a rich family's mansion in 18th century China. Except that these episodes are full of poetry, lively descriptive passages of scenery and, surprising to me, a lot of delving into the feelings of characters, an aspect that makes the novel seem almost modern: telling us what even ordinary people are thinking. I say almost modern, because the society the book describes is the formal, structured, hierarchical China of the Manchu dynasty of Emperors: everyone knows their place and guards it jealously: extended family intrigues about money and position are the bread and butter of this saga. All-in-all this novel not difficult to read, quite fun, and tells you a lot about China in the 18th century. I am forewarned that the plot gets somewhat grimmer in later volumes as the family's fortunes decline, but I will report back on that when I have managed to read them: Volume 2 here I come!