Thursday, March 22, 2007

Van Gulik

Robert Van Gulik (Dutch diplomat and authority on Chinese history and culture) wrote the Judge Dee mysteries in the 50's and 60's.

These stories are set in Imperial/Confucian China during the T'ang dynasty (about 1300 years ago). The mysteries themselves are intriguing, but the society & culture that surrounds each crime is what really makes these books worth reading. The University of Chicago Press began reissuing them beginning in the early 90's, and most can be found on
amazon.com.

Colin Glassey has a nice page on which he describes and lists some of the Judge Dee mysteries.

3 comments:

jafabrit said...

Is the image yours? I like the way the light is hitting it.

Marty Brooks said...

Yes it is. I used sumi ink with varying amounts of water to create the different grays.

jafabrit said...

It's beautiful.