Many of these characters and their children intersect over the years as the historical events in the storyline allow. There are also Manchu warriors in supporting roles. A eunuch named Lacquered Nail becomes close to the Empress Dowager Cixi. Trader’s estranged cousin, Cecil Whiteparish, is a missionary who has second thoughts about the British in Asia. There’s a Hakka pirate-turned-British informant named Nio and his relative Mei-Ling, a sister-like figure. Trader is kicked out of Canton with the rest of them in 1839 and finds refuge in Macao. He works alongside the real life characters of William Jardine, James Matheson and Charles Elliot. The novel begins with a fictional English character named John Trader, down on his luck and massively in debt, who connects with opium dealers. His latest is titled China and spans the last seventy years of the Qing Dynasty: which covers the Opium Wars, Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, and Pu Yi’s ascension to the throne as the last emperor. They dig deeply into a specific place and he focuses on a certain period. Edward Rutherfurd is known for massive historical novels usually set in cities like New York, Paris and London.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |