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A review by jmatkinson1
China by Edward Rutherfurd
5.0
The kingdom of China is closed to outsiders, the Emperor rules a huge land mass and does not need to trade with barbarians. The British are desperate to get hold of China tea but cannot afford the price in silver so they smuggle opium into the country which leads to conflict. The Manchu dynasty is under threat from both the barbarians and also a sect from the south who threaten the rulers. This is a time when fortunes can be made or lost.
Normally Rutherfurd writes novels that are vast in terms of time scale but here the time is shortened, around 50 years in the 19th Century, but where the changes are massive. As ever he weaves the stories of a group of families together and because the timeframe allows it the characters are fully developed. There is the English merchant and his missionary cousin, the eunuch, the general and the peasant. This period of Chinese history is fleshed out in an incredibly readable way and the sheer length of the novel does not seem much of an issue as the stories are so fascinating. Another triumph for a favourite author
Normally Rutherfurd writes novels that are vast in terms of time scale but here the time is shortened, around 50 years in the 19th Century, but where the changes are massive. As ever he weaves the stories of a group of families together and because the timeframe allows it the characters are fully developed. There is the English merchant and his missionary cousin, the eunuch, the general and the peasant. This period of Chinese history is fleshed out in an incredibly readable way and the sheer length of the novel does not seem much of an issue as the stories are so fascinating. Another triumph for a favourite author