This startling collection of five erotic stories are from seventeenth-century Ming dynasty China, a period char-acterized by increasing industrialization and urbanization, which led to a more material society, and to a desire in the population to pursue luxury and pleasure.

Ling Mengchu’s stories are pre-occupied with sexuality and include a host of characters, including bold, aggressive, cunning, and seductive men, and highly passionate, sensual, and sexually insatiable women. The publication of In the Inner Quarters, for the first time ever in English, gives new life to the sensual pleasures of that era.

Dr. Lenny Hu (Translator) has -translated Philip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus and numerous other literary works. He was born in China and has taught at universities both in China and Canada.