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    Necklace and Calabash: A Chinese Detective Story
    Necklace and Calabash: A Chinese Detective Story
    Necklace and Calabash: A Chinese Detective Story
    Ebook127 pages2 hours

    Necklace and Calabash: A Chinese Detective Story

    By Robert van Gulik

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    About this ebook

    Brought back into print in the 1990s to wide acclaim, re-designed new editions of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee Mysteries are now available.

    Written by a Dutch diplomat and scholar during the 1950s and 1960s, these lively and historically accurate mysteries have entertained a devoted following for decades. Set during the T'ang dynasty, they feature Judge Dee, a brilliant and cultured Confucian magistrate disdainful of personal luxury and corruption, who cleverly selects allies to help him navigate the royal courts, politics, and ethnic tensions in imperial China.  Robert van Gulik modeled Judge Dee on a magistrate of that name who lived in the seventh century, and he drew on stories and literary conventions of Chinese mystery writing dating back to the Sung dynasty to construct his ingenious plots.

    Necklace and Calabash finds Judge Dee returning to his district of Poo-yang, where the peaceful town of Riverton promises a few days' fishing and relaxation. Yet a chance meeting with a Taoist recluse, a gruesome body fished out of the river, strange guests at the Kingfisher Inn, and a princess in distress thrust the judge into one of the most intricate and baffling mysteries of his career.

    An expert on the art and erotica as well as the literature, religion, and politics of China, van Gulik also provides charming illustrations to accompany his engaging and entertaining mysteries.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateNov 15, 2010
    ISBN9780226849027
    Necklace and Calabash: A Chinese Detective Story

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    Reviews for Necklace and Calabash

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    77 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is a later Judge Dee novel from van Gulik. His writing and characterisation are at their best here. Unusually for a Judge Dee story, he is without his usual retinue; Ma Joong, Chiao Tai and Tao Gan. This gives van Gulik the opportunity to explore Judge Dee's character with a little more subtlety. The background story involves theft from an Imperial Palace, but as usual with van Gulik, several stories are developed simultaneously. Dee's story weaves alongside and into that of an itinerant zen monk; and as Judge Dee assumes and then lays down a temporary commission as Imperial Censor he reflects on the emptiness of all power. The book includes woodcut drawings by van Gulik, including the priceless "Judge Dee scrubs his boots with unnecessary vigour" as Fern (a twenty-something local girl) mischievously takes a bath in the river nearby. Robert van Gulik's life was extraordinary, travelling in Japan and China before and during WW2, he was a highly ranked Dutch diplomat and historian. He chose the medium of a real historical figure Judge Dee (630-700AD) to tell the story of T'ang Dynasty China. His love of China and Chinese history comes through in the sympathetic treatment of a different time and place. This is great detective fiction, a wonderful introduction to Chinese history, and clearly a novel that speaks from the author's heart.
    • 5/5
      One of the best of the series, and the most like a Chandler novel. You wouldn't think one could do the scene where the detective is told to just shut up and get in the car in the 7th century, but van Gulik pulls it off.
    • 4/5
      Kina, år 668-Dommer Di er magistrat i Poo-yang og gør to dages ophold i Rivertown. I skoven møder han en taoist-munk, Master Gourd. Rivertown er et "specielt område" for Kejserens yndlingsdatter bor her i et smukt palads omgivet af hundrede af hoffolk og hofsnoge. Alle forbrydelser i byen kan tolkes som majestætskrænkelse og udløse "den langsomme død", så der er stille og fredeligt i alt fald på overfladen. Lige inden Di's ankomst er der dog fundet et lig i floden. Det er Kingfisher kroens kasserer, der er blevet torteret grusomt til døde. Di forklæder sig som læge og bliver indblandet i et tyveri af kejserens yndlingsdatters halskæde med 84 perler. Den er stjålet fra det stærkt bevogtede palads og efter lang tids hemmelig efterforskning finder Di ud af at det er paladsets overeunuk, der står bag. Eunukken har flere motiver, blandt andet at få total magt over kejseren, der måske/måske ikke begærer sin egen datter. Til sidst fortæller Master Gourd at det er ham, der har blandet Di ind i sagen og at det faktisk er ham, der er far til "Kejserens tredje datter".Undervejs får Di via kejserlig fuldmagt total magt, men han afgiver den igen for at vende tilbage som magistrat i Poo-yang.Glimrende fortælling med Dommer Di i solo-optræden

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