The Reluctant Parting (Part One)

1. Read the series preface or a short biography of Gu Mingdao first to understand the context of Republican-era popular fiction before entering the main text.
2. Attend to the contrasts among the several couples' emotional lines; a simple character-relationship chart can aid reading.
3. When you meet Republican-era usage or old-style expressions, do not stop; read through the plot first and look back afterward.
4. After finishing, compare Zhang Henshui's and Zhou Shoujuan's romantic methods to appreciate the similarities and differences among writers of the same period.

China Culture and History Press has long devoted itself to modern and contemporary literature and culture-and-history reading matter, with publishing directions centered on classic works, social novels, prose and miscellaneous writings, and Eastern philosophy, alongside culture-and-history periodicals such as Zongheng. Among the more than 1,500 titles in the collection, representative books include Zhang Henshui's Ti Xiao Yin Yuan, Lu Xun's Complete Classic Works (10 volumes) and Wild Grass, and Lao She's Four Generations Under One Roof series and the boxed set of Lao She's Classic Works (10 volumes), while its author resources are concentrated on figures such as Zhang Henshui, Lu Xun, Lao She and Sima Qian. Its publishing character lies in solid editorial work on culture-and-history source texts and in issuing famous authors' works in sets, balancing the readability of individual texts with the systematic presentation of complete collections for focused reading and collecting. Beyond these directions, public information on the press's contemporary original publishing is limited, so it is not elaborated here.