The Vermilion Gate - By Lin Yutang

Hardcover first published 1954 by William Heinemann. The jacket is whole, but mildly rubbed and worn in places, with some insect damage to the folds. The edges have been reinforced with sticky tape. The boards are clean, with some wear to the edges, and the spine is slightly cocked. Apart from the name of a previous owner in pen on the pictorial boards, the pages are clean and unmarked. "Lin Yutang has set his new novel about China in the early 1930s- the period of the great Moslem Rebellion. The story opens with a students' demonstration in the ancient capital of Si-an where the heroine, young and fiery Jo-an, is injured when the police charge the demonstrators in an effort to disperse them. Li Fei, a newspaper correspondent, is looking on and takes her to hospital for treatment, waits for her, and takes her out to lunch. He discovers that she is the daughter of a poetic scholar and convinced loyalist and has a cousin who is typical of the new American-trained Chinese business man, unscrupulous and influenced by the worst aspects of westernisation."