Kai Lung travels the roads of an imagined old China with his wallet of stories, talking his way past bandits and village elders with tales of ambitious officials, scheming merchants, unlucky lovers and malign spirits. Everything is told in an ornate, endlessly courteous diction in which insults arrive disguised as compliments. The China here is pure Edwardian invention, not a picture of the real country.
The first Kai Lung book, a favourite of connoisseurs of dry, elaborate wit. Download the free EPUB.