Download or read book Ideal and Actual in the Story of the Stone written by Dore Jesse Levy and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Levy explores the classic Chinese novelThe Story of the Stone(also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber), illuminating the work by interpreting its four major themes: the inversion of traditional family dynamics, the function of illness and medicine in a Buddhist society, the role of poetry in a dynastic Chinese society, and the use of poetry as a vehicle for spiritual retribution.