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BOOK REVIEWS205 institutions, publications, and so forth, either in parentheses or in a separate list. Most of the items in their selected bibliography are written in Korean. I would suggest adding two basic articles in the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Although they were written in 1975 and 1977, the entries "Korea, libraries in the Republic of by Gertrude S. L. Koh and "Korean literature and bibliography" by Thomas Hosuck Kang provide a good overview. This book's index could also stand considerable improvement. A good index allows the user to quickly find specific details without reading the entire book and is very important in scholarly works, especially reference books. This book's index is inadequate. Acronyms are inconsistently handled. For example , CENTLAS appears in the text as an acronym, but is never fully spelled out and is not listed in the index. Sometimes acronyms are indexed only under the full titles. At other times they are listed as acronyms, either with or without being spelled out in the same or in separate entries. Nevertheless, this work has value in being the first comprehensive book on the subject in English. The authors present not only current facts and conditions , but also provide insight into the problems and future directions of Korean libraries and librarianship. Though it has some limitations, it will serve as a general reference book on its subject for interested users. Kyungmi Chun University of Hawai'i at Mänoa A Korean Storyteller 's Miscellany: The P 'aegwan chapki of O Sukkwön, translated and introduced by Peter H. Lee. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1989. 312 pp. $44.50. In terms of volume, Peter Lee's publications seem to fall into two large categories : various anthologies of Korean literature and annotated translations of works written by Koreans in Chinese. With his translation and discussion of A Korean Storyteller's Miscellany (P'aegwan chapki) by O Sukkwön (fi. 1525— 54), he once again demonstrates the unique contribution he makes to the field of Korean literature studies in the English-speaking world by translating Korean works written in Chinese. We are already in his debt for such monumental translations from Chinese as his Lives ofEminent Korean Monks (Haedong kosüng chön) and Songs of Flying Dragons (Yongbi öch'ön ka). He has the skills and the inclination to unlock the vast treasure trove of Korean literature in Chinese and it is wonderful to see further evidence in his Miscellany. It is not just the field of Korean literature that stands to benefit from this contribution, for our colleagues in neighboring fields will discover in this work a unique source of information on sixteenth-century Korea. It will be 206KOREAN STUDIES, VOL. 19 helpful to colleagues in Chinese and Japanese studies, history, comparative literature , anthropology, sociology, and ethnology who strive to understand traditional Korean society, culture, and values. While Lee's erudite annotations are faithful to the best of sinological traditions, his supple but elegant translation of the main text makes it accessible to any intelligent reader seeking an insight into the Korean scholar's world of four centuries ago. Lee's English title of this collection notwithstanding, the reader should be forewarned that the author Ö Sukkwön was not a storyteller by profession and that his work is not simply a collection of entertaining "stories." Professional storytellers in the Chosön of Ö's time were mostly illiterate members of the lowborn ch'önmin class, grouped with wandering entertainers, shamans, slaves, and butchers. For a literate and educated person of estimable standing to dub himself a p'aegwan, or "anecdotalist," was to speak modestly of his own writings. Many a scholar demurely identified his informal work as "jottings " or "scribblings" in order to distinguish it from his formal composition in orthodox styles. It is in this spirit that Ö calls himself an "anecdotalist" and his collection a chapki, or "miscellany." It perhaps would have been less misleading had Lee simply called the work "A Korean Literary Miscellany." Not only would such a title be accurate and self-explanatory, it would also properly identify Ö's work in the context of East Asian literary traditions. A Korean Storyteller's Miscellany goes...

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