Novel Medicine

"Groundbreaking. . . . Explores not only the textual interplay of novel medicine and medical fiction, but also their roles as important literary genres in disseminating vernacular knowledge about health, illness, healing, and the body."

-- Robert E. Hegel * Nan Nu: Men, Women, & Gender in China *

"Offers exciting new literary and historical methods for unraveling the many intersections between medicine and literature that should be of great interest to readers engaged with the medical humanities, the cultural history of medicine, and late imperial Chinese history."

-- Marta Hanson * Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review *

"Novel Medicine is an innovative comparison of medical lore and fictional practice. . . . This is an important study, one that should be read by anyone seriously interested in late imperial Chinese culture; it demonstrates the interactions between realms of knowledge that modern specialized fields so easily overlook."

-- Harry Yi-Jui Wu * Medical History *

"This book is a highly original contribution to the scholarship on traditional Chinese fiction. I very much hope that students of traditional Chinese medicine (and of the introduction of Western medicine into China) will find this work equally fascinating and enlightening."

-- Wilt L. Idema * Journal of the American Oriental Society (JAOS) *

"Like an early Chinese novel, Andrew Schonebaum’s book Novel Medicine both informs and titillates. . . . This is innovative scholarship. . . . Schonebaum’s expansive conception and meticulous research make Novel Medicine an eye-opening read, one that I particularly recommend to historians of medicine and of gender and sexuality."

-- Hilary A. Smith * Bulletin of the History of Medicine *

"Andrew Schonebaum has written an insightful and original historical work on popular medicine and literature in late imperial China."

* Journal of Asian Studies *

"Novel Medicine offers an intriguing opportunity to reorient the study of Chinese medical history toward a broader categorization of ‘medical texts,’ and therefore a more accurate understanding of late imperial worldviews and medical beliefs. . . . Schonebaum’s fascinating subject matter provides a thoroughly engaging read."

* Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) - Modern *

"Straddling the lines between fields like Chinese literature, medical history, and even gender studies, Novel Medicine is eye-opening in its interdisciplinary rigor."

* Asian Medici