As a result, this doesn’t feel much like a book about China at all but rather British imperialism. And though the British characters’ storylines are neatly wound up by the end of the novel, many of the Chinese characters’ stories are left unresolved. Rutherfurd instead often shows the Chinese perspective via musings by oddly woke British characters, but these attempts lack power. Additionally, while much of the book is written from the point of view of Chinese characters, just as much, including the story’s climax, is told from the British characters’ point of view. With China’s long history, it makes sense that Rutherfurd would choose a relatively small time period, but seventy years is hardly a blink of an eye for Rutherfurd, whose previous works have spanned as many as two thousand years. Rutherfurd follows the fortunes and misfortunes of his cast of characters for nearly seventy years, ending in 1902, just after the Boxer Rebellion. Along the way, Rutherfurd introduces a number of Chinese characters, including a pirate named Nio, and a eunuch in the emperor’s palace who goes by the pseudonym “Lacquer Nail” because he is the manicurist for the emperor’s favorite concubine. He arrives just as the First Opium War breaks out, and Rutherfurd spends long chapters detailing the British and Chinese military maneuvers and how these affect the Chinese and British economies and, consequently, Trader’s fortune. In 1839, John Trader comes to China from England, hoping to make his fortune in the opium trade. Rutherfurd stumbles uncharacteristically in this tepid outing, his first set outside of a Western culture. That little personal aside out of the way, this ripping great story is well worth the huge amount of time that I spent reading it and the five stars I am giving it.

Also the phrase was coined by Bayard Rustin a Quaker and civil rights leader in 1942 making it out of step time wise. To me, the word truth is so powerful by itself that any embellishment lessens it. The main culprit for me near the end was the phrase “truth to power”. One thing that did give me pause a couple of times was the use of some contemporary phrasing here and there. I had heard of Gordon of Khartoum but not of China Gordon and was most surprised to learn that President Hoover of Hooverville fame was a geologist involved in coal mining in China in his younger days.

I also learned some new facts about real historical figures that sent me scurrying to Wikipedia. As a lover of history, I loved this novel and I believe that non lovers of history will feel the same about this epic story peopled by opium traders and pirates, missionaries and mercenaries, Empresses and eunuchs and so much more. For some reason the books he wrote since then never had occasion to land on my shelf until receiving this early copy of China. Years ago I read Sarum by this author and remember enjoying it very much.

China edward rutherfurd review