Includes bibliographical references (285-294).

This popular autobiographical novel, written by litterateur, inventor, and business tycoon Chen Diexian (1879-1940), is the story of his youth, and in it he chooses to focus on his amorous and erotic development - a rare subject in Chinese literature - revealing his passage from innocent boy, surrounded by females, to young man, armed with a new attitude toward money, business, and the women in his life. The novel is built on our narrator's relationships with the central women in his life: his mother; an affectionate nanny; his enchanting cousin; his devoted wife by an arranged marriage; a tragic peasant girl; and above all, the girl next door and his most enduring love, known - after the instrument she plays - as Koto.

Also issued online.

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