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A Bond of Metal and Stone
A Bond of Metal and Stone tells of an engagement made in childhood, a family ruined, a poor bride who is swapped for another girl and a lover who refuses to give up. Through poverty, false accusation and reversals of fortune, the bond made in youth holds, hard as metal and stone. This is a complete new English translation, with names in modern pinyin and the text rendered as plain, readable English prose. Like the best scholar-and-beauty novels it moves quickly, with disguises, poems exchanged in secret, examinations, villains and a hard-won happy ending. These romances were the popular reading of their day, devoured by young men and women, imitated on the stage and admired abroad, and they remain charming, quick and surprising.
