In the 1960s, Hawkes became increasingly interested in Cao Xueqin's 18th-century epic novel "Dream of the Red Chamber" (紅樓夢), and in 1970 he was approached by Penguin Books to do a non-scholarly translation for publication in the Penguin Classics series. Translating all 120 chapters of "Dream of Red Mansions" proved a huge task, and in 1971 Hawkes shocked much of the Sinological world by resigning the chair of Chinese to focus exclusively on his translation. He obtained a Research Fellowship at All Souls College in 1973, which provided him with financial support during his translation work, which took nearly 10 years. He translated the first 80 chapters of the novel, which were published in three volumes (1973, 1977, 1980) under the novel's original title "Story of the Stone" ("Shitou ji" ). The remaining 40 chapters, which appeared after Cao's death and whose authenticity has long been debated, were later translated by Hawkes' son-in-law, the British sinologist John Minford.