"Five volumes of sheer bliss. There’s almost nothing fiction can offer that isn’t in this book: an 18th Century, post-modern, Zen, worldly, otherworldly, gorgeous, funny, sorrowful, gripping, saga of a large, staggeringly wealthy Qin Dynasty family. Stunningly well translated, (the first three volumes by David Hawkes, the final two by John Minford, Hawkes’ son-in-law). It takes a while (or it did me) to keep the many, many characters straight, but it’s definitely worth the trouble."

"Buñuel films have had a huge influence on me, this one perhaps most of all. There was a time when I carried the book of the script around, opening it at random to absorb its perverse, funny tone and stare at the old black-and-white stills. Catherine Deneuve acts like she’s sleepwalking, but her character, Séverine, is wonderfully cool and disdainful as she gives free rein to her erotic fantasies, in dreams and in life."