Dream of the Red Chamber, also known as The Story of the Stone, is a novel by Cao Xueqin from the Qing dynasty, regarded as the greatest of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It circulated in manuscript copies for decades before the first printed edition appeared in 1791 and 1792, and the last forty chapters were completed by another editor, Gao E, since Cao left the work unfinished at his death. The story follows the decline of the aristocratic Jia family and the tragic love of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. With its hundreds of characters and detailed depiction of daily life, it is a masterpiece of Chinese literature and the subject of a whole field of study called Redology.
Before and after
- 22 September 1791Birth of Michael Faraday
- 5 December 1791Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- 26 December 1791Birth of Charles Babbage
- 1792Publication of La Marseillaise
- 1792Publication of Dream of the Red Chamber
- 1792Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- 29 February 1792Birth of Gioachino Rossini
- 7 March 1792Birth of John Frederick William Herschel
- from 20 April 1792 to 20 November 1815Coalition Wars
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.