"二十年目睹之怪現狀" by Jianren Wu is a novel serialized in the early 1900s and published in book form in 1909. Through a collection of anecdotes, the work chronicles strange events and happenings observed over twenty years. Originally appearing in Liang Qichao's magazine "New Fiction," the novel captures peculiar occurrences and social phenomena of late Qing China. Scholars have analyzed its distinctive plot structure, noting how Wu weaves together episodic stories to create a panoramic view of his era's oddities and anomalies. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
These books are free to read. Each is in the public domain in the United States; check your own country's rules before you copy or share one.