This memoir of a life in the Qing dynasty reveals a sensitive and artistic man, who failed at the civil service examinations that were the gateway to official employment and had to settle for becoming an itinerant private secretary, dabbling unsuccessfully in making a living as an artist and a merchant. Underlying Shen Fu's account are vivid examples of domestic life, ritesand rituals, the workings of government, and the role of the courtesan in nineteenth-century China. Graham Sander's translation, the first in nearly 30 years, is a model of accuracy and fluency, bringing the subtleties of the original to light in English for the first time.