{"product_id":"fortress-besieged-9780811238601","title":"Fortress Besieged","description":"Set on the eve of the Sino-Japanese war, \u003cem\u003eFortress Besieged\u003c\/em\u003e 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, \u003cem\u003eFortress Besieged\u003c\/em\u003e was acclaimed by C. T. Hsia as \"the most delightful and carefully wrought novel in modern Chinese literature.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New Directions Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/12\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780811238601\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 608","brand":"Qian Zhongshu","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52360486060213,"sku":"9780811238601","price":25.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_58121ff3-d80e-4b20-ac30-0a3fcfce03ac.jpg?v=1773721177","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/fortress-besieged-9780811238601","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}