An encyclopedic account of Qing society

Almost every Chinese person has his or her own image of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, the two main protagonists of the classic mid-18th century novel, A Dream of Red Mansions.

Critics such as Chen Fumin have drawn parallels to Shakespeare's works not only because of the Romeo and Juliet-like pairing of Jia and Lin, but also because of the novel's social sweep.

Other comparisons include Japan's early-11th century The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, and Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.