The Chinese Vernacular Story

Reader's review:
Can't find a better introduction to Chinese vernacular short story pre-1911. Hanan is not only a titan of a scholar, but also a very skilled writer/translator with an amazing ability to synthesize large amounts of material. He starts by describing the various Chinese languages circulating in the late Ming / early Qing dynasty (i.e., 17th century) and then proceeds to describe the development of the vernacular short story over several centuries…