{"product_id":"fortress-besieged","title":"*Preorder* Fortress Besieged","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe greatest Chinese novel of the twentieth century, Fortress Besieged is a classic of world literature and a masterpiece of parodic fiction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet on the eve of the Sino-Japanese war, Fortress Besieged recounts the exuberant misadventures of its hapless hero Fang Hung-chien.  After aimlessly studying in Europe at his family’s expense, Fang returns to Shanghai armed with a bogus degree from a fake university. On the ocean liner back, Fang’s life becomes deeply entangled with those of two Chinese beauties―Miss Su and Miss Pao. Qian writes, “With Miss Pao it wasn’t a matter of heart or soul. She hadn’t any change of heart, since she didn’t have a heart.” When he does finally make it home, he obtains a teaching post at a newly established university, encounters effete pseudo-intellectuals, and falls into a disastrous marriage of Nabokovian heights of distress and absurdity. A glorious tale of calamity, disillusionment, love, war, and wedded unbliss, Fortress Besieged was acclaimed by C. T. Hsia as “the most delightful and carefully wrought  novel in modern Chinese literature.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lot 49 Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45065167863990,"sku":"9780811238601","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0681\/3600\/9910\/files\/9780811238601.jpg?v=1776451343","url":"https:\/\/lotfortynine.com\/products\/fortress-besieged","provider":"Lot 49 Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}