Description
The greatest Chinese novel of the twentieth century, Fortress Besieged is a classic of world literature and a masterpiece of parodic fiction
Set on the eve of the Sino-Japanese war, Fortress Besieged recounts the exuberant misadventures of its hapless hero Fang Hung-chien. After aimlessly studying in Europe at his family’s expense, Fang returns to Shanghai armed with a bogus degree from a fake university. On the ocean liner back, Fang’s life becomes deeply entangled with those of two Chinese beauties—Miss Su and Miss Pao. Qian writes, “With Miss Pao it wasn’t a matter of heart or soul. She hadn’t any change of heart, since she didn’t have a heart.” When he does finally make it home, he obtains a teaching post at a newly established university, encounters effete pseudo-intellectuals, and falls into a disastrous marriage of Nabokovian heights of distress and absurdity. A glorious tale of calamity, disillusionment, love, war, and wedded unbliss, Fortress Besieged was acclaimed by C. T. Hsia as “the most delightful and carefully wrought novel in modern Chinese literature.”
Reviews
"That the novel existed at all seemed a miracle. It’s like War and Peace without the war." — Yiyun Li, from the Introduction
"Insightful and entertaining." — Jonathan Spence, The New York Review of Books
"Ribald and sardonic, Fortress Besieged has something for everyone. It’s funny, poignant, and ruthlessly observant. Qian’s descriptions are wickedly precise." — Julia Lovell, The Guardian
Also By: Jonathan D. Spence 
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