Novels of Yen-Ching: The Maker of Heavenly Trousers - The Gate of Happy Sparrows and The Temple of Costly Experience by Daniele Vare (RB209)

Published 1954 : First Omnibus Edition / Hardcover / Very Good Condition

Original blue cloth with gilt titles on the spine (Upside Down as Issued). 648 very clean and bright pages, mild speckled foxing on the endpapers. Covers are slightly rubbed and stained with time consistent with age. The dust jacket is slightly rubbed with time and chipped along the edges, with foxing on the flaps and underside consistent with age but remains intact. Scarce! (RB209)

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The Maker of Heavenly Trousers by Daniele Varè

A Peking love story first published in 1935, The Maker of Heavenly Trousers tells the story of an unnamed foreign bachelor who lives in a courtyard dwelling alone but for the Five Virtues, the nickname for a family of mischievous Chinese servants who run his household as they please.

A foreign bachelor living in Peking's Chinese quarter finds himself guardian to the young daughter of an Italian railway worker. Through his stewardship, he catches a glimpse of an entirely different side of life. As Kuniang grows up, his feelings for her change, and he must compete with a motley cast of characters for her attentions. These include a shadowy former mistress of Rasputin, a flamboyant American fashion designer, and an English millionaire. But when Kuniang unwittingly falls under a form of Eastern hypnosis, a terrifying vision threatens their prospects.
Set against the mysterious and turbulent backdrop of Peking with its disparate inhabitants in the early twentieth century, The Maker of Heavenly Trousers is a charming, and at times tragic, story of love and family.

The Temple of Costly Experience by Daniele Varè

Daniele Varè (1880-1956) was an Italian expatriate diplomat and author who spent his early years in the UK, returning to Italy with his Scottish mother at the age of 11. Young Danielle entered the Italian Diplomatic Service in 1907 and was first assigned to China in 1912. In Beijing he had as a subordinate Galeazzo Ciano (later to become Benito Mussolini's Minister of Foreign Affairs).In 1932, while serving as Ambassador to Denmark, he was forced to resign by the Fascist Regime as many other Italian Diplomats. Hence he originally published in English and only later in Italian.The Temple of Costly Experience (Der Tempel der kostbaren Weisheit) (1937), set in the early twentieth century in the Chinese capital of Peking, where the author spent two lengthy periods serving as a diplomat in the Italian Legation as a First Secretary (1912-1920) and later, Minister (1927-1931).

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1971626.The_Maker_of_Heavenly_Trousers