Cyril Birch is Agassiz Professor Emeritus of Chinese and Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley. His books include the two-volume Anthology of Chinese Literature, Stories from a Ming Collection, Scenes for Mandarins, Mistress and Maid, and Tales from China. Catherine Swatek is Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, and author of Peony Pavilion Onstage: Four Centuries in the Career of a Chinese Drama.
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" ... [a] superb adaptation of one of the more complex pieces of traditional Chinese vernacular literature ... a sapphire in the crown of chuanqi drama, a play the Ulster of which shines undimmed in Cyril Birch's lively rendition." --Journal of Asian Studies "Birch has the exuberance needed for Tang Xianzu's work, and without distortion he finds in Tang's cast of minor characters ... a host of echoes of Shakespearean comedy and Shakespearean diction... [a] profound text in English that speaks to an audience of intelligent lay people as a work of artistic integrity rather than one of exotic chinoiserie."--New York Review of Books A Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 1981.