Three Kingdoms

A Historical Novel (Centennial Books)

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Kuan-Chung Lo, Luo Guanzhong: Three Kingdoms (1992, Univ of California Pr)

Hardcover, 1120 pages

English language

Published July 14, 1992 by Univ of California Pr.

ISBN:
978-0-520-06821-6
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3 stars (5 reviews)

San guo zhi yan yi 三國演義

46 editions

reviewed Three kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong (Chinese classics)

Review of 'Three kingdoms' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Reading Three Kingdoms is a capital-P Project. 120 chapters chronicling close to a 100 years of Chinese history, the fall of the Han dynasty, the emergence of the Shu, Wei and Wu states and their eventual unification by the Jin dynasty. A kingdom long united must divide, long divided must unite. I read this titanic book over 10 months, 12 chapters at a time, and it proved to be a fantastic way to do so: I got enough content every month to think about, never got bored and never forgot what was going on when I hopped back in.

And I really enjoyed my time with it; like Moss Roberts, the translator of this excellent unabridged version, says in his closing essay, this book can be considered a historical text, a novel, a drama - it has it all. A cavalcade of major and minor characters, most of them memorable, …

reviewed Three kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong (Chinese classics)

Review of 'Three kingdoms' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Written in the 14th or 15th century (the exact date is a matter of debate), this historical novel can be a difficult read at times, but I'm glad I took the effort to finish it.

Anyone reading this for the first time may want to start with the afterword in volume IV, and read it up to the point where the author suggests you start reading the novel itself. It will give you a better idea of what the focus of the novel is. This is important because the focus doesn't really emerge until the second volume, and I was somewhat lost throughout the first volume as a result.

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Subjects

  • Three kingdoms, 220-265
  • Historical fiction
  • Chinese Novel And Short Story
  • Unassigned Title
  • Fiction
  • History
  • Asian - General
  • Other prose: classical, early & medieval
  • China