Four great classical novels

[dalizee]

I would like to read the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. But, because i'm just a biginner, i prefer the English version and then i'll try with the Chinese one.

I'm talking about:

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (i found only this: http://dw3k.com/newrotkebook/ Is it the real one?)

Water Margin

Dream of the Red Chamber (http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/8hlm110.txt This is the right one?)

I've already read Journey to the West, which was really great.

Does someone know any link where i can find them?

Thank you so much!

[Lu]

For the Honglou meng, I'd read the translation by David Hawkes (I read this and thought it was really good). It's not online, but you can buy it in paper.

[Javer Chen]

yeah, Honglou Meng is great, especially for the guys who want to know Chinese culture. for example, It depicts almost all of Chinese food.

But I like Shui Hu most. It will be much better to read chinese version, the language is very beatiful.

[Meng Lelan]

Forgive me for jumping in, but seeing this thread reminds me of something I heard 15 years ago, someone wrote saying young people shouldn't read Hongloumeng, old people shouldn't read Sanguo Yanyi. Can anyone confirm this, is this some Chinese folk expression or something?

[lzreading]

From Wiki:

...there is a popular saying in China that goes: "少不讀水滸, 老不讀三國", translated as "The young shouldn't read Water Margin while the old shouldn't read The Three Kingdoms." The former depicts the lives of outlaws and their defiance with the established social system. Depicting frequent violence, brawls, passionate brotherhood and an emphasis on machismo, it could easily have a negative influence on young boys. The latter presents all kinds of sophisticated stratagems, deceptions, frauds, trickeries, traps and snares employed by the three kingdoms and their individual characters to compete with each other, which might tempt the experienced old readers (the elderly are traditionally well respected, trusted and considered wise and kindhearted in Chinese society) to use them to harm other people. Also, old people are supposed to "know the will of the heavens" (says Confucius). They shouldn't exhaust or strain themselves with always having to consider how to deceive others.

[dalizee]

Wow, i didn't know that. It's very interesting. How i like all these popular saying and their meaning.

[stephanhodges]

You can get text or Pleco versions of the books in simplified Chinese here: http://china.panlogicsoftware.com/ebooks.html#the_four_great_novels

I own the site. I certainly would welcome additional texts, if people would consider adding them.

stephan

[dalizee]

Hey, thank you so much!

[dai3yuen]

I'm actually interested in reading these books but I would like to read the english versions..

Can anyone recommend me a website that I can buy the books from?

Also is there a difference in the quality of the translations?? I'm assuming there's more than 1 version of 'Journey to the West' out there....

Thanks

[dalizee]

I've already started to read "Dream of the red chamber", but i found it in Romanian.

[chrix]

if you're interested in reading them in traditional script, wikisource seems to have all four of them in both simplified and traditional. Only problem is that you have to click on each chapter separately.