Quote of the day....

There is comfort in noir says Hitchens. There is
absolutely no comfort in 'Jesus wants me for a sunbeam' .
While I question a lot of things this man says, I just really liked this quote. It's kinda been my philosophy of life for the past 12 years or so.

Robert Van Gulik, The Chinese Gold Murders

This book is the earliest of the Judge Dee novels that I've read. It was only the second one written and takes place just after Dee passes his examinations and is first appointed to the provinces. I have to say I preferred the earlier naïve and more engaging Dee to the later older version. The murders involved poisoned tea, corrupt monks, and of course prostitutes. One thing that was interesting about this book was the strong Korean presence in the city. Van Gulik said that he got the idea for this from reading Ennin's Diary, the travelogue of a Japanese Buddhist Monk who visited China during the Tang dynasty, who wrote about the strong Korean influence there. It was nice to see the cosmopolitan aspect of Tang life explored. This story introduced his two ex-highwayman assistants, who attempted to rob him on the road before coming to work for him. There was a great scene where they were fighting that seemed straight out of a kung fu movie as the soldiers rode up while they were fighting to rescue the Magistrate, and he said how they were just sparing.

In the afterward Van Gulik mentions how, as the Chinese mystery writers he was copying did, used the styles and cultures of the Ming dynasty even though they were set in the Tang. This made a lot of the anachronisms he uses make a lot more sense. Though it is nice that he keeps the Tang politics alive, particularly as these novels are set during the reign of Empress Wu. (He mentions that the main murder he borrows from a Chinese story which has Wu Zetian in the title. Which he has also translated, and now I need to find a copy of that as well!) I continue to greatly enjoy the Judge Dee mysteries and will carry on reading them till I have read them all.

Charlotte Dacre Zofloya or The Moor

This book was recommended to me by sahra_patroness because she heard I was into Gothic literature. She suggested this one as it has a strong female character, rather than a weak fainting heroine as often found in Mrs. Radcliffe's works. (Which granted I also need to read!) But I decided I had to read it. The story did have a bit of a strange plot arc, as is often the case in older novels. "The Moor" didn't show up till about a third of the way through but had one of the most dramatic entrances of a character ever. The dream of the heroine when he firsts arrives was by far my favourite part of the book. It was interesting to see how quickly she fell from enjoying sex to wanting to commit murder to have her way. When reading the book I was rather disappointed that she didn't actually have a physical relationship with the Moor. It was obvious he was after her body and soul, but only ended up with the soul.

The author took an interesting stance towards human wickedness. The girl, having no role model, was weakened against attack and was therefore easily led astray, though it did take the efforts of the devil himself to truly corrupt her.

The plot did start to drag towards the end a little, as the poisoning dragged on a bit, but it was such a fast and enjoyable read that it didn't matter much. I'd definitely recommend it to other people who are into this type of fiction.