Book Report: Six Chapters of a Floating Life by Shen Fu
Introduction
Recently, I have read Six Chapters of a Floating Life, an autobiographical novel by Shen Fu who was a painter and poet during Qing Dynasty. The author is not so famous in the history of literature that I had not learnt about him before my teacher introduced this book to us. However, Six Chapters of a Floating Life is worth reading, which depicts the author’s life with his wife and without his wife. The version I have read was translated by Yin Yutang and published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in Feb, 1999.
This book has four chapters, Wedded Bliss, The Little Pleasures of Life, Sorrow, The Joys of Travel. It was said that the other two chapters are missing and that what we can read on other books were created by some one else. Through Six Chapters of a Floating Life, the author presents an image of a lovely couple who love each other deeply. Although they lived in Qing Dynasty hundreds of years ago, we can conjure up the pictures of their life, full of ups and downs, via the author’s description. The author takes advantage of his life experience as clues to narrate different stages and different aspects of his life. With each of chapters containing a thematic content, the whole book is well-organized and clear for readers to follow the clue of the author’s writhing.
The name of the book, especially “a Floating Life”, originated from a poem by Li Bai who was a genius poet during Tang Dynasty. The poet expressed his muse on life. So did Shen Fu. He uses simple and natural words to note most of his life combined with joys and miseries, both of which are moving and real making readers smile or sentimentalize from the bottom of heart.
Summary of Content
Wedded Bliss
Wedded Bliss is mainly about the happy life of Shen Fu and his wife Chen Yun who is regarded as the loveliest woman in the history of China by Yin Yutang. She is one of the author’s cousins and ten months older than him. They knew each other well when they were young,
Recently, I have read Six Chapters of a Floating Life, an autobiographical novel by Shen Fu who was a painter and poet during Qing Dynasty. The author is not so famous in the history of literature that I had not learnt about him before my teacher introduced this book to us. However, Six Chapters of a Floating Life is worth reading, which depicts the author’s life with his wife and without his wife. The version I have read was translated by Yin Yutang and published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in Feb, 1999.
This book has four chapters, Wedded Bliss, The Little Pleasures of Life, Sorrow, The Joys of Travel. It was said that the other two chapters are missing and that what we can read on other books were created by some one else. Through Six Chapters of a Floating Life, the author presents an image of a lovely couple who love each other deeply. Although they lived in Qing Dynasty hundreds of years ago, we can conjure up the pictures of their life, full of ups and downs, via the author’s description. The author takes advantage of his life experience as clues to narrate different stages and different aspects of his life. With each of chapters containing a thematic content, the whole book is well-organized and clear for readers to follow the clue of the author’s writhing.
The name of the book, especially “a Floating Life”, originated from a poem by Li Bai who was a genius poet during Tang Dynasty. The poet expressed his muse on life. So did Shen Fu. He uses simple and natural words to note most of his life combined with joys and miseries, both of which are moving and real making readers smile or sentimentalize from the bottom of heart.
Summary of Content
Wedded Bliss
Wedded Bliss is mainly about the happy life of Shen Fu and his wife Chen Yun who is regarded as the loveliest woman in the history of China by Yin Yutang. She is one of the author’s cousins and ten months older than him. They knew each other well when they were young,