Before I actually review this book, I feel it warrants some explanation of three different times which attributed to this book. During the Tang Dynasty in China, a man named Dee Gong An (630-700 AD) was a renowned magistrate (whose job encompassed detective, police, jury, and judge) and later state politician in China. During the 18th century in China, an unknown author, probably a retired magistrate himself, penned this book, describing three of the complex murder cases of Judge Dee. Then Robert Van Gulik decided to translate it into English for a western audience in the 1940s, believing it to be one of the most accessible tales in the Chinese detective genre. Diesel watch dz7023 manual dexterity. Robert Van Gulik went on to write an entire series surrounding the character of Judge Dee and though this book is merely a translation, it’s sequels were entirely Van Gulik’s creation (all seventeen of them). I have yet to read them, but after reading this one, I want to read them all! Release: 1949 Synopsis: Judge Dee, famed magistrate of Chang-ping, sets out to solve three complex, unrelated murder cases.

• Celebrated Cases Of Judge Dee
• Tales Of Judge Dee

Celebrated Cases Of Judge Dee

The road-side murder of two merchants, the mysterious death of a young man, and a deadly poisoning of a bride on her wedding night. All three draw Judge Dee and his faithful men into a complex game of cat and mouse. Review I cannot praise this book enough.

Not only does Van Gulik’s translation capture many of common tropes in classic Chinese novels, but the characters within this book are fascinating and the mysteries are baffling. Judge Dee is perhaps a perfect Chinese version of Sherlock Holmes, or vice-versa, since Dee is Holmes’s predecessor. I have never read a Chinese detective novel before, and know I kind of want to learn to read Chinese characters just in order to read more of these. One of the biggest criticism I see for this book is that there are some rather harsh torture scenes. Traditionally in China, torture (beatings, for example) was used to extract information from perceived criminals. In this book, for example, one of the suspects (a young woman) is stripped to the waist and beaten with a whip on her bare back (which is shown on the front cover of the book and which I tactfully covered with “Review”). To a modern perspective, and more specifically a western perspective, a lot of people would be horrified by this.

Tales Of Judge Dee

And I will admit, it bothered me a bit as well. However, I personally prefer a historical mystery to be more realistic than ideal. So often, mysteries set in China (like Charlie Chan) completely misinterpret or willfully mislead an audience on the norms and customs of China.