"Read these tales properly, and they will make you strong and brave; read them in the wrong way, and they will possess you." - Feng Zhenluan Early ninet"Read these tales properly, and they will make you strong and brave; read them in the wrong way, and they will possess you." - Feng Zhenluan Early nineteenth century commentator on the Strange Tales
I honestly don’t know how to begin with reviewing a book like this. Normally with short story collections, I try to do a short review for each tale, but with 104 stories, I’m not going that route this time. Perhaps we’ll go with a little historic background?
These tales were written by Pu Songling sometime in the Qing dynasty (from what I can gather, he probably completed the tales by 1679, but could have been adding extra stories up until the early 1700s) and published by his grandson in 1740. The stories range from silly real life problems from the upper classes, to stories dealing with monsters, ghosts and fox spirits. Throughout this collection there is obvious social criticisms; sometimes these are outright preached as a moral at the end, more often they are more subtle or presented as a joke (Ha! Those silly merchants and their greed, that priest sure showed them, eh?). The only major theme tying all the stories together is that they are indeed strange. Sometimes the strangeness comes from the supernatural side, or it can just be the peculiar habits people pick up, but every single tale serves as an oddity that shows human nature in often surprisingly witty fashions.
If I was to do a one word review, the closest word to capturing the feeling of these tales would be sublime. In this collection you will find stories about fox spirits, ghosts, demons and priests. You will find longer tales of the supernatural and short almost slice of life moments of comedy. There is horror, humor and wonder all in about equal measure and it is stunning.
While I do not know if it is the translation or the style it was written in, but the book is very readable. The stories flow well, and never feel their age other than in some of the opinions he expresses which are very much a part of his time. Some American and European readers may be shocked by the amount of sexuality in this book considering its age, but remember, this is 1600/1700 China, with stories often taking place much earlier, not your usual proper English subject matter of the time. Though as a fun historic note, in the introduction to the Penguin edition I read, the translator discusses earlier translations where they tried to hide the more erotic content, with some examples being a fox spirits coming into bed chambers at night and "drinking tea" or "playing Go" instead.
I can’t say that every story in the collection is perfect. Some are duds, but the good far outweighs the bad, and as a look at history its rather fascinating on that ground alone. Well deserving of a full 5 stars and my highest praise....more
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