Book excerpt: Dreaming across Languages and Cultures: A Study of the Literary Translations of the Hong lou meng (also called The Dream of the Red Chamber, Red Chamber Dream, or The Story of the Stone) is a groundbreaking monograph in translation studies. Integrating theory with practice, it examines, analyses, compares, and evaluates 14 versions of the greatest Chinese novel in five major European languages, namely, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. In this study, translation, linguistic, literary, and semiotic theories, as well as the author’s own experience of translating Dante and Shakespeare, are drawn on. Though primarily aimed at scholars specializing in translation and in Hong lou meng studies, the book also introduces students of Chinese literature, comparative literature, and cultural studies to new interdisciplinary perspectives. By illustrating salient points with lively and interesting examples, too, it enables the non-specialist to see the fascinating intricacies of language and translation, as well as the complex relationship between translation and culture. In view of its new approach to a new topic, of its many impressive insights, and, above all, of the amazing depth and breadth of its investigation, Dreaming across Languages and Cultures is truly monumental.