About the author

Public information about Shi Xiaokai is limited. What is known is that five of his works are held in the library, all belonging to the "Read a Classic in One Book" series and focusing on classics of foreign literature and philosophy. Judging from his representative works, his writing centers on The Brothers Karamazov, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Lolita, Jane Eyre and Being and Time, touching on Dostoevsky, Kundera, Nabokov, Charlotte Brontë and Heidegger. These books are commonly classified under foreign literature, philosophical reading, classics, literary appreciation and Eastern philosophy, which suggests that he aims at general readers, using a guided-reading approach to unpack plot, theme and intellectual background and to lower the barrier to these texts. Overall, his writing is popularizing and appreciative in nature, stressing the structure of each work and key points for understanding, and is suited to readers hoping for an initial approach to literary and philosophical classics.

Written (5)