Four Classic Chinese Novels

"Journey to the West", "Outlaws of the Marsh", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and "A Dream of the Red Mansions" are universally accepted by all Chinese people as their greatest novels. Even the illiterate Chinese are intimately knowledgeable with the plot and the main characters of these novels because they have been the sources of much popular entertainment, whether it was the traveling opera of old or the contemporary movies and TV serials. In terms of how well the story is told, "Three Kingdoms" and "A Dream of Red Mansion" are vastly superior to the other two works. In fact each of their fans, Chinese and foreign, consider their respective novel the best novel ever written. Anywhere. "Three Kingdoms" is the best novel in the strategy and action/adventure category while "A Dream of Red Mansions" is the greatest romantic novel.
These novels are long, some being over 3,000 pages long, depending on the edition. Abridged versions are available but we strongly recommend against reading just the abridged versions of "Three Kingdoms" and "A Dream of Red Mansions", because you'll want to read the full version sooner or later. On the other hand, "Journey to the West" and "Outlaws of the Marsh" are written as a series of loosely connected stories and therefore may not lose as much from abridgement.