''Dumb Luck'' (''Số đỏ'') is a 1936 novel by the famous Vietnamese novelist, Vũ Trọng Phụng. The novel served as an contemporary critique on the Vietnamese late colonial society by the means of satirizing the rising

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

. The main character of the story, Red-haired Xuân, himself was a part of the lower class of society, was able to work his way up through the social ladder, quickly associating with the upper class connections and individuals through cunning works; all thanks to the, then popular, Westernization social movement among the Hanoian

petite bourgeoisie ''Petite bourgeoisie'' (, literally 'small bourgeoisie'; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a French term that refers to a social class composed of semi-autonomous peasants and small-scale merchants whose politico-economic ideological st ...

class in the 1920s. A movement which was portrayed as immoral and stand in stark contrast to existing Vietnamese moral foundations by Vũ Trọng Phụng. ''Số Đỏ'', among many other works of Vũ Trọng Phụng was banned by the

Vietnamese Communist Party The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), also known as the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), is the founding and sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Hồ Chí Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North ...

, first in

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

from 1960 to 1975, then throughout the unified

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

until 1986,Zinoman, Peter. "Vũ Trọng Phụng's ''Dumb Luck'' and the nature of Vietnamese modernism." Introduction to ''Dumb Luck.'' Vũ Trọng Phụng. Translated by Nguyen Nguyet Cam and Peter Zinoman. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. . due to the author's realistic description of sexual content which was considered unsuitable. Until now, the book "Dumb Luck" was re-published in Vietnam. At the same time, an abridged version is also included in the literature curriculum for Vietnamese high schools. Due to the complexities of the plot and the nature of the novel; Most, if not all of the main characters of this novel are antagonists. An English translation was published by the

University of Michigan Press The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including L ...

in 2002. A German translation was published by Tauland-Verlag.

References

External links

University of Michigan Press publicity page
1936 novels Satirical novels Vietnamese novels Novels set in Hanoi University of Michigan Press books {{Vietnam-stub