張愛玲的小說，擅長運用感官描寫「蒼涼」的氛圍，其中聽覺描寫是一特色，她將自己從生活焠煉出的審美觀化為文字，藉由刻劃各種聲音以營造畫面、傳達情感與思想，反映作家的美學風格。張愛玲的小說多充滿悲調，根源於作者悲觀的人生態度，所描寫的音調幾乎無聲不悲，她藉由聽覺描寫鋪陳情節，或揭示人物心理、塑造人物形象，並善用參差對照的手法，或使聲音悲喜交錯，或賦予各種意象，令讀者更深刻的理解故事與作者思想。張愛玲對俗世生活有深刻的體會，且具有天縱敏銳的聽覺感受力，故能以各種聲音素材例如市聲、無線電與留聲機、中國民俗樂器等，吟唱出百態人生，進一步建構了她眼中龐大的、鬼魅般的「非人世界」，反映其對人類本性之陰暗面，擁有透徹的洞察力。

Zhang Ailing had always excelled at describing “Desolation” in her novels. One of her real work features is her description of hearing. Through a variety of sounds she painted pictures of life and expressed her feelings and thoughts. Her novels are flowers of language and full of sadness, which derived from she being pessimistic about her life. When Zhang goes beyond plain narrative, her descriptions are bare but abound with any very picturesque quality. The narrative about music in her stories is often pouring forth sad hunting melodies. It is so detailed and so ruthless in its searching delineation of characters that there is need for any attempt to convey atmosphere by hearing descriptions. She knew her characters thoroughly and had a clear picture of each one’s looks, speech, and thoughts. Its theme lets the readers deeply understand her story and thoughts. She experienced the life of dull earthlings, and then wrote down her novels by describing a variety of sounds.