Pauline Chen reworks a classic of Chinese literature

In this modern adaptation of the 18th-century Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber, life for the aristocratic characters is described as akin to an "elaborate web": exquisite but also a trap.

It is an apt illustration for the gilded cage inhabited by the wealthy, well-connected Jia family who live a life of pleasure and privilege in Rongguo Mansion located in old Peking. But just as Cao Xueqin's original book - considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature - delivers a scathing critique of feudal China, the shimmering facades in this new take by Chinese-American author Pauline Chen also belie a crueller reality.

Jia Zheng, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Works, is the head of the Jia clan who live under the protection and favour of the emperor. The novel gets under way with the arrival of Daiyu, Jia Zheng's niece, who travels to the capital from her home in Nanjing to live with her extended family after the death of her mother.

The spirited Daiyu is used as a prism through which we see the excesses of the Jia family. She is uncultured in the elaborate customs of her richer relatives. She makes simple, but embarrassing, errors at formal family meals. She refuses to play political games in the household and fails to curry favour with the formidable Granny Jia, who makes many of the most important decisions. Such concerns pale in significance, however, as it becomes clear that the Jias' bloated wealth is founded on financial duress and a shaky political patronage which may soon be undone.

Amid these dramas, forbidden love blossoms: Baoyu, Jia Zheng's dashing son, falls for his cousin soon after her arrival and they embark on a secret romance. But Baoyu is soon betrothed to the sensible, reserved Baochai, Daiyu's closest friend and ally who also lives in Rongguo Mansion. A Confucian emphasis on societal duty over personal desire sets the stage for tragedy.

Purists might be appalled by the liberties Chen, who has a doctorate in Chinese literature from Princeton University, has taken with the original book. Plot lines are rejigged and often created from scratch. The number of characters, which in Cao's work total more than 400, are cut down (In the original Daiyu is served by five nannies, two body servants, and five or six maids).

The most dramatic change is the absence of any form of the supernatural. Crucial to Dream of the Red Chamber is the story of a reincarnated stone which drops from the sky into the human world. Chen merely alludes to this.