The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun

by Xun, Lu; Lovell, Julia; Lovell, Julia; Li, Yiyun

• ISBN13: 9780140455489
• ISBN10: 0140455485
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-26
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

'The most hated man in the village had been beaten to death . . . and some of the villagers had dug out his heart and liver, then fried and eaten them, for courage'Lu Xun (1881-1936) is one of the founding figures of modern Chinese literature. His celebrated short stories assemble a powerfully unsettling portrait of the superstition, poverty and complacence that he perceived in late imperial China, and in the revolutionary Republic that toppled the last dynasty in 1911. This volume presents Lu Xun's complete fiction, including 'The Real Story of Ah-Q', 'Diary of a Madman', 'The Divorce' and 'New Year's Sacrifice', among others.Julia Lovell's major new translation of Lu Xun's short stories is accompanied by an introduction to the writer's political and literary life. This edition also includes suggested further reading, a note on Chinese names and pronunciation, a chronology and notes.Translated with an Introduction by JULIA LOVELLWith an Afterword by YIYUN LI

Author Biography

Lu Xun (1881-1936) studied to be a doctor before turning to writing as the self-appointed literary physician of China's spiritual ills. After his death, he was called "the saint of modern China" by Mao Zedong, who commandeered him in service of the Cultural Revolution.
Julia Lovell has translated Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang, Serve the People by Yan Lianke, and I Love Dollars by Zhu Wen.
Yiyun Li is the author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Guardian First Book Award, and The Vagrants.