BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A series of books on classical Chinese novels have been published by the People's Literature Publishing House, compiling 54 volumes of 25 classics that represent the highest artistic achievements in this field.

With rich illustrations selected from famous paintings and beautiful portraits, the series includes the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature and "Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio," a collection of classical Chinese stories by 17th-century writer Pu Songling.

The publishing house was the first organization to publish collated and annotated versions of classical Chinese novels after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.