The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century is a 1980 book edited by Milena Doleželová-Velingerová, published by the University of Toronto Press.
Yee's review noted that the conventional viewpoint regarding Qing Dynasty novels was that they were "loosely plotted, consisting of episodes simply strung together.
[1] Robert E. Hegel's review states that each essay in the second portion "breaks new ground by presenting in English an intelligent discussion either of a previously overlooked work or of a new approach to one better known".
"[9] Yin C. Liu wrote in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies that "Altogether this book is an interesting and worthy addition to the reference shelf.
[4] Robert E. Hegel wrote that the editor "has extended a much needed and very welcome 'boost up' to the study of late Qing fiction and has helped to demonstrate something of the literary treasures to be found there.
"[11] Richard John Lynn in Pacific Affairs argued that the editor correctly stated that traditional times had major evolutionary processes that lead to the modern period but that the editor and the authors had not "realized the full extent of this interaction and influence" and that he believed they did not "entirely emancipated themselves from the limitations of May Fourth iconoclasm.
[5] Yee argued that "the hypothesis that Late Qing novels exerted as great an influence on May Fourth fiction as Western works did awaits further proof.
"[5] He also stated that seven of the nine articles "generally do not challenge the received interpretations (from critics like A Ying, Lu Xun, and Hu Shih) of late Qing fiction as "novels of exposure" (qianze xiaoshuo), which depict political and social decay.