romance of the three kingdoms (BOOKS, not games) question

Does anybody happen to know where I can find the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novels (translated into English, please, as I can't read Chinese)? They seem to come in various amounts of volumes, anywhere from 2-5 books per set. Anybody know what a good set to buy, for reading purposes, obviously, would be? If you can recommend one over another, WHERE THE HELL CAN I FIND SOMEWHERE THAT HAS THE BOOKS IN STOCK!!?? Every on-line store I go to says ships in 1-4 weeks or some bullshit like that.

Can anyone help? Thanks!

I second that request! These are great books,by the way.Have anyone ever read Romance of the Three Kingdoms Manga? I wonder if they were translated into english as well.I think the Dynasty Warriors games were based on the Manga version.

B.I.GPSYCHE:
I second that request! These are great books,by the way.Have anyone ever read Romance of the Three Kingdoms Manga? I wonder if they were translated into english as well.I think the Dynasty Warriors games were based on the Manga version.

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I was browsing on Half and saw someone selling what LOOKS like a complete set of the translated Manga. I thought about picking it up, but I want to read the "real thing" first, if you know what I mean. It was also selling for $130, which is another reason I steered away for now.

The only time I've ever seen a copy of these (in a three volume paperback set) was in China. They were all over the place there... airports, tourist department stores etc.

If you can find a place that ships them in 3-4 weeks, I'd say go for that, 'cause I don't think you'll be able to get them any faster than that.

I've never read them, but from what I've heard, it's a lot like reading Tolkien, get ready for a lot of similar sounding people and place names ...

I borrowed all three books from my local library when I was about 14. It reminded me a lot of the game Destiny of an Emperor (NES) more than the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. I didn't read the entire three book set mostly because it was really confusing (reminded me a lot of Old Testament Bible stories), and the translation was not that great. That is the only place I have ever seen the Three Kingdoms books. Good luck in your search.

Criterionradiohead wink

My dad has the whole set... in Chinese... Did you know that the original novels were written in chinese POETRY?

Holy crap, it is not prose, so it is very hard to understand even if you can read chinese.

Lastblade:
My dad has the whole set... in Chinese... Did you know that the original novels were written in chinese POETRY?

Holy crap, it is not prose, so it is very hard to understand even if you can read chinese.

Click to expand...

Yeah, and it was being written before 429 AD... one guy started doing biographies of the officers and after his death another dude continued it. Over the years it was continually added to, until it finally transformed into San Guo Yan Yi (this is the version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that was translated into English, as I understand it). This story has one crazy and long ass history behind it. Gotta thank <a href="http://www.kongming.net" target="_blank">KongMing</a> for a lot of info!

There are three translated versions of the Three Kingdoms Novels in English but they use different Chinese pronounciations, one of them uses the Wade-Giles system(which is commonly used for Cantonese or the Yuan dialect group, which was the most common Chinese dialect during the 1800's here in the US and very common in Southern China along with other southern dialect groups; I spoke a variation of Cantonese, which is Toisanese but when I spoke it, it sound a lot like the Hong Kong dialect, another variation of Cantonese, due to the New England accent), and the other two uses Pinyin(which is commonly used for Mandarin or the Han dialect group, the official dialect of Mainland China and Taiwan, but it's mostly a northern dialect along with another dialect group, Hakka)

Here's an example of the Wade-Giles(using Cao Cao's name): Tso Tso

You can do what I did. I downloaded the novel from <a href="http://www.threekingdoms.com." target="_blank">http://www.threekingdoms.com.</a> You can read the entire story here online and find plenty of info on where to order the books. I'm only up to Chapter 18 where Xiahou Dun loses his eye.

The info in this thread helped, but I was recently looking for info on all 4 of the great books and had to find most of it myself. Consider this a pseudo-bump... the thread can die again, but I want this info to be there so it shows up in future searches.

What are the 4 great books of China?

1. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
2. Outlaws of the Marsh
3. Journey to the West
4. The Dream of the Red Chamber

Aliases:
1. none
2. The Water Margin, All Men Are Brothers
3. Monkey
4. The Golden Lotus, The Story of the Stone, A Dream of Red Mansions

Video games (loosely based on):
1. Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, Dynasty Warriors, Destiny of an Emperor
2. Suikoden

DVDs:
1. Romance of the Three Kingdoms series by CCTV, versions with "Engrish" subs available, some ex low quality, purchase with care
1. Great Conquest: Romance of the Three Kingdoms anime... extremely hard to find, more common in VHS, and the available English versions have violence censored and are also incomplete
2. The Water Margin TV series by CCTV, director of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, supposedly excellent but no English subs available
2. The Water Margin film by Chang Chen, English subs available
3. Journey to the West TV series by CCTV, no English subs
4. A Dream of Red Mansions TV series by CCTV, no English subs
4. The Dream of the Red Chamber film, 100+ minutes, English subs available

Books:
Best translation (hearsay, not from personal experience... ask me in a year and I'll probably have personal opinions for all of the versions I decided on):
1. Moss Roberts > C. H. Brewitt-Taylor
2. Sidney Shapiro, no contest
3. Arthur Waley > Anthony C. Yu > W.J.F. Jenner
(Arthur Waley's version "Monkey" is abridged from 100 chapters to 30, but is supposedly the only enjoyable translation.)
4. David Hawkes/John Minford >> Yang Xianyi
(Hawkes Minford translation has 5 books with different titles, it took me awhile to find them all:
The Story of the Stone
The Crab-Flower Club
The Warning Voice
The Debt of Tears
The Dreamer Wakes)

How do I judge translations?:
Using accounts from people who have read the books, I look for accounts of a translation that approximates the experience of reading a book in the native language over a translation that is extremely faithful. Authors make better translators than scholars in this regard, because they are more worried about the reader getting the same feel than the same meaning. Translating the images and feelings that the words evoke is more important than translating the direct meanings, especially where idioms are involved.

http://kongming.net/novel/

http://www.3kingdoms.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=6

http://empiredividedtk.com/forum/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Heroes_of_the_Three_Kingdoms

here ya go. just a few good places i know about this excellent topic.

Lastblade said:

My dad has the whole set... in Chinese... Did you know that the original novels were written in chinese POETRY?

Holy crap, it is not prose, so it is very hard to understand even if you can read chinese.

Click to expand...

I have no problem reading it and I've finished reading it three times.

BTW, original novel wasn't written in poetry format. It's in Ancient Chinese format and uses a lot of words that we don't use quite often today.