Kingdoms in Peril

This abridged edition introduces readers to the power and drama of the electrifying classic Chinese novel. One of the great works of Chinese literature, beloved in East Asia but virtually unknown in the West, Kingdoms in Peril is an epic historical novel charting the five hundred years leading to the unification of China under the rule of the legendary First Emperor. Writing some fourteen hundred years after the unification, the Ming-era author Feng Menglong drew on a vast trove of literary and historical documents to compose a gripping narrative account of how China came to be China.
Here, translated into English for the first time, Kingdoms in Peril recounts the triumphs and tragedies of those five hundred years, through stories taken from the lives of the unforgettable characters that defined and shaped the ages in which they lived. This abridged edition distills the novel's distinct style and its most dramatic episodes into a single volume....