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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A MASTERPIECE WORTHY OF THE TAIPAN!,
By
This review is from: Noble House Vol. 2 (Hardcover)
James Clavell was a WONDERFUL Writer (yes, with a capital W) and NOBLE HOUSE was a gift he left to us!
Through his eyes we visit Hong Kong in the 1970's. Clavell, like a virtuoso connaisseur of the human condition he is, manages to interweave a multitude of stories into a continuous carpet of a city living fast, taking risks, winning and loosing but never giving up. Heads of huge conglomerates on the verge of foundering - yet never letting go of their rival's throat; dirt-poor Chinese maids striking it rich by a sudden turn of their joss; photographer-Wo and his trophy collection; drug-running smugglers asking for favors-you-can't-refuse; cold war spy networks riddled with double and triple agents; an American stock-market runner trying his hand in raiding Hong Kong companies; ladies getting "pillowed", men getting wooed, fortunes made and lost in the 10 days these all take place. Will the Noble House survive? To quote Balzac, behind every great fortune lies crime. To prove him right, Noble House is but a thinly veiled reference to Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd, a real company. Anticlimactically for an historic British company operating in China, it is nowadays incorporated in Bermuda - and trying to forget its opium-running past (like so many City of London companies respectable today yet founded on drugs and dead natives). All these stories are presented masterfully, without ever loosing the reader's interest or dropping the ball of building tension. There were less than a dozen writers who could do this - starting with Homer. My copy was so worn I had to replace it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! PS: There is a 1988 TV mini series based on this book - of comparable merit. (The mini-series are currently available only on VHS). The major casting was excellent (having suave Pierce Brosnan and beastly John Rhys-Davies go head-to-head was a stroke of genius). Although it run for 6 hours total, it barely scraped the surface of the complex story-lines. Truly beautiful production. Nevertheless, my advice is to first read the book and only THEN watch the TV version.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
not reliable,
This review is from: Noble House Vol. 2 (Hardcover)
Only NOBLE HOUSE VOL 2 shipped. VOL 1 never received tho sold as a set. Books are better when read from the beginning I find.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great saga of international business, politics, and espionage,
By Roger J. Buffington (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Noble House Vol. 2 (Hardcover)
"Noble House" is a sequel to the incomparable Tai-pan. While "Tai-pan" is essentially a novel of the founding of Hong Kong as a British territory, "Noble House" is a sequel set in the 1960s. The Cold War is at its peak, Asia is beginning to flex its muscles, and the world is wracked by conflict.
"Noble House" specifically deals with the conflict between the Noble House ("Struans") which was founded by Dirk Struan in "Tai-pan" and "Rothwell-Gornt" which is a successor to Brock & Sons, the arch foe of the Noble House for two centuries, and headed by Quillan Gornt. The head of Noble House, Ian Dunross the Tai-pan, has sworn a blood oath of unforgiving conflict against Gornt, and Gornt returns the hatred with interest. This is a complex novel that is interwoven with numerous vivid characters including an American industrialist, a Soviet spy, a Chinese Communist mole, and of course the Tai-pan and Gornt. The story is one of business conflict combined with international politics and espionage. The story has a Cold War flavor to it, and is great fun. Adding to the fun are oblique references to events and characters in "King Rat" and "Shogun," also masterpieces by Mr. Clavell. No European knows Asia like author Clavell does, and his insights into Asian culture are enlightening and downright fascinating, and these permeate the novel. While Noble House is a complicated story, it is told in a reasonable straightforward manner that keeps the reader's interest. This is a very fine novel that rewards the reader. Highly recommended.
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