Everyone knows the classics. The widely read, widely praised, widely taught works of literature that form what we come to think of as literature itself. Within that canon are authors whose names echo across the valleys of centuries of writing: Dostoevsky, Morrison, Brontë, Tolstoy, Calvino, Shelly. Amongst them, hailed should be Qian Zhongshu and Fortress Besieged.
The new edition of Fortress Besieged is newly released by New Directions with a foreword by the inimitable Yiyun Li and was originally written in the 1940s during the height of the eight-year Sino-Japanese War. The main character, Fang Hung-chien, is a student abroad who has recently returned to his homeland of China. Despite his years abroad allegedly studying, Hung-chien is missing his most critical trophy: a doctoral degree. The anti-hero spent more time wandering and musing than actually studying, and when he realizes that his father and soon-to-be father-in-law (who never actually becomes his father-in-law when his bride-to-be passes unexpectedly) who are funding this degree would expect some evidence of it existing, he must resort to drastic measures: procuring a fake degree from an imaginary institution. From there, Hung-chien rolls with the punches of life from one city to another, one job to another, and one love interest to another, witty and impulsive the whole way along.
I found this book to be many things, but above all, I found it to be a humorous, satirical look at people in all facets of life. There were many moments in which I found myself not just laughing with but relating to the people in this book, from the jaded love interests Miss Sun or Miss Su to the foe-turned-friend Chao Hsin-Mei. The people in this book are real, and they are gritty and flawed and determined. Zhongshu captures that genuine human-ness that all great novelists are renowned for, that feeling when a reader realizes they are relating to someone far in the past. Hung-chien is an amicable main character, but one that is easy to both critique and sympathize with, who embodies both the good and bad of the human condition.
While Zhongshu is poking fun at humanity writ large, this book is called a fortress besieged, and the reason for that is from the French proverb “a marriage is like a fortress besieged: those who are on the outside want to get in, and those on the inside can’t wait to get out.” The primary satire is about how we act in romantic relationships, specifically, how we behave in marriages once our true colors have shown. Hung-chien goes through a multitude of love interests: Miss Pao, Miss Su, Miss T’ang, Miss Sun. For all of them, he finds that the element of love is missing, despite initial feelings of excitement and passion that ultimately dissipate over time. Nonetheless, Hung-chien does eventually get married (though to whom I won’t say), and the last portion of this book is one of the greatest portrayals of a relationship crumbling I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. We are left questioning if he had just chosen his other option, if things would be different, though perhaps Zhongshu is suggesting they wouldn’t be.
In addition to the phenomenal characters, the plot of the book is entertaining, balancing humorous hiccups and serious occurrences greatly, as well as the dynamics between the characters and the historical backdrop in which this story takes place. It’s accessible, beautifully written, and stokes intrigue incredibly well. I’m sorry to say that prior to taking this review, Qian Zhongshu wasn’t a name I had heard of, but it is now going to be held firmly in the list of literary giants who deserve their place on all shelves of those who love to read, to learn, and to experience.
FICTION
By Qian Zhongshu
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Published September 15, 2026
