Some Chinese Ghosts

Hearn, Lafcadio, 1850-1904Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.1

Word count: 128K words
Chapters: 13

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Some Chinese Ghosts by Lafcadio HearnAuthor: Hearn, Lafcadio, 1850-1904,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 11, 2005

Editor's review

Lafcadio Hearn's Some Chinese Ghosts is a collection of English short stories drawn from Chinese supernatural legends. Writing as a Western author, Hearn retells Eastern ghost and spirit tales with a strong sense of atmosphere and vivid imagery, suffused with exotic imagination and lyricism. The book is short, with each piece standing alone. It serves as a sample of how late nineteenth-century Westerners received and retranslated Chinese folk tales, and will appeal to readers interested in supernatural literature and cross-cultural writing. Readers can savor both the eerie and poignant quality of the stories and note the Eastern sensibility and literary embellishment the author brings to his adaptations. The free electronic edition from Project Gutenberg makes the original text easy to consult at any time and is well suited to slow, careful reading in a quiet setting. Note that these stories are not faithful translations of Chinese classics but re-creations in the author's personal style; readers should not cite them directly as folklore material.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in supernatural legends and cross-cultural adaptation
Literature lovers curious about how Western writers retranslate Chinese stories
Those with some English reading ability who enjoy atmospheric short stories
Learners seeking short English texts for close-reading practice

Not a good fit for

Folklore researchers hoping for faithful translations of Chinese classics
Beginners with weak English reading skills who prefer light reading
Readers expecting long, continuous plots or a modern narrative pace

Reading tips

After each story, briefly note the plot and where the author altered it, for comparison and reflection
Pay attention to setting descriptions and atmosphere, and appreciate the author's style
Read alongside similar Chinese supernatural tales to observe differences in cross-cultural retranslation
Read slowly in quiet sessions, leaving intervals between stories to avoid aesthetic fatigue from continuous reading

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Are these stories faithful translations of Chinese folk legends?

No. The author uses Chinese supernatural material as a basis for literary re-creation, blending in personal imagination, lyrical prose, and a Western perspective. They are adaptations rather than faithful translations, and should not be cited directly as folklore material.

How long is the book, and how difficult is it to read?

The book is a short-story collection, brief in length, with each piece standing alone. The language carries the literary flavor of late nineteenth-century English, with carefully crafted sentences. Readers with some grounding in English can read slowly; beginners may need supporting tools.

Is it suitable as an introductory book for understanding Chinese ghost culture?

It can serve as supplementary reading from a cross-cultural perspective, but it presents Chinese ghosts as seen by a Western writer, with obvious literary embellishment and exotic imagination. To understand Chinese supernatural lore itself, one should read Chinese originals or reliable annotated translations.

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About the author

Hearn, Lafcadio, 1850-1904 Author

Hearn, Lafcadio (1850–1904) was an essayist and writer of folk literature who wrote in English in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and lived for a long time in Japan. His works draw chiefly on legends, ghost stories and daily life in Japan, China and the Caribbean. Twenty-two of his works are held here, including Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life, Some Chinese Ghosts, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: First Series, Kotto, Exotics and Retrospectives and Two Years in the French West Indies. His writing blends foreign observations, folk tales and personal meditation in a cool, vivid style, and has deeply influenced Western understanding of Japanese culture. Because public information is limited, his early life and biographical details are not elaborated here; this note focuses on the subjects and style of his works.