Book description
China's Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history; somewhere between twenty and forty million people lost their lives, in battle, or to starvation and disease. With the exception of World War II, more lives were lost in this conflict than in any conflict in history.…
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Why read it?
1 author picked The China Memoirs of Thomas Rowley as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Disguised as a long-lost memoir, this compact Taiping Rebellion tale surprised me by its stately prose, exquisitely controlled by Barre from the first page to the last.
When the fictionalized Rowley is separated from (the historical) Frederick Townsend Ward’s battalion, he is captured by a beautiful but fierce Taiping rebel, Sweet Little Sister. Rowley’s simple, unironic first-person voice is perfectly suited to his worshipful love for his captress, as she leads him around the rebel camp on a leash, alternately teasing and sexually tormenting him.
The full-blown sadomasochism of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs and Pauline Réage’s The Story…
From Isham's list on novels that immerse you in Chinese history.
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