Redology for blaggers

Hong Lou Meng is one of the most beautiful and important novels in world literature, but, well... it's a bit long. And a bit dense, especially in translation. So I'll be posting an English summary, a chapter per day, a supercondensed summary and maybe other thoughts or articles. I use the 1791 Cheng-Gao version, simplified characters, pinyin and Hawkes' English character names, as they are so much more evocative and distinctive. Whether you're a student, a literary fan, or just curious, enjoy.