GULIK, Robert van (author and illustrator). The Chinese Bell Murders: Three Cases Solved by Judge Dee. London: Michael Joseph. 1958.
8vo. Publisher’s soft cream card covers lettered in black to front cover and spine, illustrated endpapers reproducing a map of Poo-Yang; publisher’s label “PROOF COPY for inspection” pasted to front cover, with “PROVISIONAL publication date March 3rd 1958” and “PROVISIONAL price 13/6” noted, front cover stamped “17 FEB 1958”; pp. [4], 288 , [4], with 15 plates drawn by the author “in the Chinese style”; covers and spine lightly worn and creased, slightly soiled, titles on front cover partly retraced in pen, old bookseller’s price in black ink to front free endpaper; very good.
Uncorrected proof copy of the first novel in the Judge Dee series.
While carrying out his duties as district magistrate, Judge Dee unravels three baffling mysteries in the underworld of Poo-Yang. The character of Judge Dee is based on the historical Tang-dynasty magistrate Di Renjie (seventh century). Van Gulik first encountered Di Renjie while translating the eighteenth-century Chinese detective novel Dee Goong An in 1949, an experience that inspired him to create his own series of Judge Dee stories.
A Dutch diplomat and accomplished scholar of sinology, Van Gulik drew extensively on his academic research in shaping his fiction and illustrated his own novels, adopting a distinctive woodblock-inspired style. Although The Chinese Bell Murders was written in 1949 and originally conceived for a Japanese and Chinese readership, it was first published in Tokyo only in 1955, and did not appear in English until Michael Joseph issued the present edition in 1958.
Evers, p. 50.
SKU: 2122643