The Wallet of Kai Lung [Import] [Paperback]

Ernest Bramah (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 286 pages
• Publisher: OUP China; New Ed edition (October 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019584050X
• ISBN-13: 978-0195840506
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This humble reviewer can not possibly do this book justice.., February 20, 2003

By 

David C. Johnson (Spencer, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wallet of Kai Lung (Paperback)

Bramah sure can spin a phrase. The book is a collection of stories told by Kai Lung, and as such is excellent. You are transported back into this fictional China, where introductions can take hours as the two people flatter each other & humble themselves endlessly. The stories are very amusing, but be forewarned; the language takes some time to read through & comprehend. Not a book to breeze through (but oh so rewarding when you do read it!)

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truely great book, October 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Wallet of Kai Lung (Paperback)

The Kai Lung books have a nice dry humour, a beautifully way of turning a phrase and a concoluted way of using the english language. It is a China that never was but really ought to have been.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read, May 25, 2009

By 

B. Wilson (orem, Utah United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wallet of Kai Lung (Kindle Edition)

I love the over-the-top pseudo-chinese-classical style of Bramah's writing: "It is indeed unlikely that you could condescend to stop and listen to the foolish words of such an insignificant and altogether deformed person as myself. Nevertheless, if you could retard your elegant footsteps for a few moments, this exeedingly unprepossessing individual will endeavor to entertain you."

If you don't like that style, you'll find it difficult to get past it to the entertaining and humorous stories of Kai Lung.

The formatting could use some improvement (uneven margins on my iPhone, double line breaks for paragraphs), but it's not too bad.