The story of the stone
In the valley of Sorrows, a monk is brutally murdered for a worthless manuscript, and the abbot of the humble monastery calls upon Master Li and Number Ten Ox to investigate the seemingly senseless killing. The most likely suspect is the infamous Laughing Prince, founder of the valley, whose murderous frenzies have made him a legend. But even Master Li must concede that the prince has a pretty good alibi: he's been dead for more than seven hundred years. Undaunted, Master Li and Number Ten Ox begin their search for the Laughing Prince. Together they roam a mystical countryside populated by demons, ghosts, murderers, and mad kings to the very gates of heaven itself -- and what they find there is even stranger still.
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What Hacker News says
- The Story of the Stone by Hawkes and Minford.
- Some other fabulous Chinese novels, not really obscure as they are the most famous novels in China, but not well known to English speaking readers: Dream of Red Mansions/Story of the Stone, an epic about two families and the decline of their fortunes; The Scholars, another 18th century long book of linked stories that's basically political satire; and Outlaws of the Marsh/The Water Margin, a long series of linked tales about bandits that's a little bit Robin-Hoodish as it's really about their political rebellion.
- It's a nice idea, but really, bookmarks aren't enough.
I can still distinctly remember reading a site which had Barry Hughart's typewritten notes for his novels (_Bridge of Birds_, _The Story of the Stone_, and _Eight Skilled Gentlemen_), and I considered saving the files for the image scans, but didn't figuring they would always be available.
Since then, he has passed away and the pages in question vanished (no idea on what order that occurred), and I haven't been able to figure out who is in charge of his literary estate, nor where his papers are stored.
I'd give a lot for someone to write a book examining his writings in a scholarly context.
If I think something might be interesting enough to read later, I print it to a PDF --- as a bonus, that means I can send it to my Kindle Scribe to read at my convenience.
- I picked Dune/Song of Ice and Fire because they're thematically similar.
In terms of bloat, excluding the Tale of Genji or the Story of the Stone, I can hardly think of anything in the 1800s that pushes into the 1M+ word mark in order to tell a complete story. I mean, people used to joke about War & Peace being long and it's hovering around 1/2 a million words -- and at least when I read it, Tolstoy seemed to be using every last one of them.
- Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart
Set in "an ancient China that never was", Bridge of Birds is a humorous, epic tale of adventure as Master Li and Number Ten Ox attempt to cure the children of Ku-fu, and uncover a vile crime perpetrated against Heaven itself.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0345321383/
Amazon's review: Bridge of Birds is a lyrical fantasy novel. Set in "an Ancient China that never was", it stands with The Princess Bride and The Last Unicorn as a fairy tale for all ages, by turns incredibly funny and deeply touching. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1985, and Hughart produced two sequels: The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. All present the adventures of Master Kao Li, a scholar with "a slight flaw in [his] character", and Lu Yu, usually called Number Ten Ox, his sidekick and the story's narrator. Number Ten Ox is strong, trusting, and pure of heart; Master Li once sold an emperor shares in a mustard mine, because "I was trying to win a bet concerning the intelligence of emperors."
Number Ten Ox comes from a village in which the children have been struck by a mysterious illness. He recruits Master Li to find the cure and comes along to provide muscle. They seek a mysterious Great Root of Power, which may be a form of ginseng. Of course, nothing turns out to be as simple as it seems; great wrongs must be avenged and lovers separated must be reunited, from the most humble to the highest. And even in the midst of cosmic glory, Pawnbroker Fang and Ma the Grub are picking the pockets of their own lynch mob, who are frozen in awe and wonder.
