«[Volpp's] successful reexamination of canonical literary texts demonstrates the possibility of yielding exciting findings even in frequently discussed fields, not only by engaging in dialogue with previous scholarship but also through meticulous observations guided by new perspectives.»

Wenting Ji, Journal of Chinese History

«Through sophisticated and brilliant close reading of selected texts, Sophie Volpp illuminates the significance of objects for early modern Chinese fiction from the point of view of material and visual culture. The Substance of Fiction is a must-read for students in early modern Chinese literature and culture.»

Shang Wei, coeditor of <i>Dynastic Crisis and Cultural Innovation: From the Late Ming to the Late Qi

«This is the most sophisticated engagement to date with the ‘material turn’ in literary studies as it applies to classic Chinese fiction. In its elegant exposition of how fictional objects are not literary instantiations of historical objects, The Substance of Fiction makes a significant intervention in current debates about textuality and materiality.»

Craig Clunas, author of <i>Empire of Great Brightness: Visual and Material Cultures of Ming China, 1

«Through a persistent excavation of the rich and often paradoxical meaning of fictional objects, Volpp reveals a previously neglected aspect of the vernacular fiction of late imperial China. She reminds us that far from illustrating reality, fictional objects acquire power and life from engendering unfamiliarity and confusion, thereby fashioning a material world interior to the text. A marvelous book.»

Wu Hung, author of <i>The Full-length Mirror: A Global Visual History</i>

«The Substance of Fiction adroitly navigates the material and literary worlds of Ming-Qing China to explore the centrality of things in vernacular writing. Examining new techniques of description and depiction, purposefully designed to question the nature of the “real” world and its unstable reflection in fiction, this book is a major contribution to scholarship on a transformative period.»

Patricia Berger, author of <i>Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing Chin

«A pioneering work that firmly brings the study of things into the fold of Chinese literary studies. Volpp’s ability to read literary text with an eye for the material detail is unmatched. Moving through a rich host of late imperial texts, Volpp offers new and startling insights into texts we thought we already knew.»

Paize Keulemans, author of <i>Sound Rising from the Paper: Nineteenth-Century Martial Arts Fiction a