The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel(English, Hardcover, Plaks Andrew H.)

Know about the book -

The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel(English, Hardcover, Plaks Andrew H.) is written by Plaks Andrew H. and published by Princeton University Press. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0691273529 (ISBN 10) and 9780691273525 (ISBN 13).

A reinterpretation of some of the great works of Chinese fiction of the late Ming dynasty In this book, Andrew Plaks reinterprets the great texts of Chinese fiction known as the "Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel" (ssu ta ch'i-shu). Arguing that these are far more than collections of popular narratives, Plaks shows that their fullest critical revisions represent a sophisticated new genre of Chinese prose fiction arising in the late Ming dynasty, especially in the sixteenth century. He then analyzes these radical transformations of prior source materials, which reflect the values and intellectual concerns of the literati of the period.