Books : The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu: Being a Somewhat Detailed Account of the Amazing Adventures of Nayland Smith in His Trailing of the Sinister Chinaman (New Millennium Library)
In association with Amazon.com
Regular marked price: $11.95Discount Price: $10.75
Cost Savings: $1.20 (10%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9781583483275
ISBN number: 1583483276
Label: AuthorHouse
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 231
Printing Date: February 22, 2001
Publishing house: AuthorHouse
Release Date: February 22, 2001
Sale Popularity Level: 429673
Studio: AuthorHouse
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu is the very first title in the famous series of 'Yellow Peril' novels published by English writer Sax Rohmer, aka Henry Sarsfield Ward (1883-1959), between 1913 and 1959. The novel, like its many sequels, pits the 'evil genius' of the Far East against the British Duo, Denis Nayland Smith and his sidekick Dr. Petrie.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
The return to a by gone era immerses the reader in a time and culture that demands your attention as the story unfolds with the ever present danger from any direction, at any time, in any place that may be the moment the mysterious Dr strikes.
Dr Fu Manchau is a legendary figure, both a villian and a patriot (in his own mind)in conflict with an equally determined opponent, Nayland Smith. The author winds a serpentine journey as the battle royal continues between these two implacable foes. Who will emerge with victory? Only the reader can decide as you will follow the adventures to a climax, or will you. Read and find out.
Rated by buyers 
-
For sure, the Fu-Manchu stories are racist; anyone who takes them seriously would be ridiculous. They are an interesting look at attitudes pre-WWI, though, and in that regard, almost laughable. Nayland Smith's talk of a "Yellow Peril" to threaten the whole white world (which never gets any more specific than that), is so corny as to be a joke. The funny thing as that all his fears about the East should really be reversed. Circa 1913, it would have been more justified for the Chinese to be worried about a European threat to their way of life.
Anyway, here's my question - why does author claim Nayland Smith is such a great hero and agent of the crown? If you ask me, he's a failure. Here's a guy who has Public Enemy #1 (the threat to the whole Western way of life) at gunpoint, but fails to shoot because Fu-Manchu's henchman puts a knife to his buddy's throat. A serious agent would take out the quarry immediately, even if it meant his own life. And this villain supposedly means the end of civilization. Isn't it worth both Smith and his pal getting knocked off in order to save humanity. I know, this is a plot device, but a cheap and visible one, and one that gets tired after the xxth time it happens.
Rated by buyers -
The breathless but brave and unrelenting goofball Nayland Smith and his stoic offsider and chronicler Petrie pursue the genius superman, the ultimate embodiment of the Yellow Peril, Dr Fu-Manchu.
Helped along the way by his beautiful but unwilling servant Kâramanèh is a game of capture and escape and disguise around London.
You have to give the good doctor credit for trying to kill 'em with poison gas stashed in a mummy's tomb.
The guy can't be all bad. He has a monkey.
Very entertaining.
Rated by buyers 
-
_The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu_, republished by Dover Publications, is an American edition of the very first book of Sax Rohmer (a pseudonym for the author Arthur Sarsfield Ward (1883-1959)), published in America as _The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu_ (1913) and in England as _The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu_. Sax Rohmer (a pseudonym meaning "blade roamer") published these stories of a Chinese criminal mastermind in magazines in America and England before cobbling them together into book form as they appear here. These stories detail the exploits of the devil doctor, Dr. Fu-Manchu, a criminal mastermind of Chinese extraction, and part of the Young China movement, seeking to destroy the white race. Fu-Manchu is described as "Imagine a person, tall, lean, and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect. . . . Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the orange peril incarnate in one man." In the book, Fu-Manchu heads a Chinese criminal organization and operates behind the front of opium dens and uses dacoits as henchmen. The story is based upon many of the stereotypes about the Chinese people popular at the time, regarding them as cunning and nefarious, and the imminent threat of the "Yellow Peril" against the white race and is certainly unlikely to please the politically correct. Fu-Manchu makes use of many secret means to attack his foes, including the Zayat kiss, the call of Siva, and deadly elixirs which enable him to control life and death, as well as fungal extractions which allow for him to cause madness. Fu-Manchu also makes use of a beautiful Arabian (Oriental) slave girl, Karamaneh, who serves him so as to prevent him from harming her helpless brother Aziz. The heroes of the story include the narrator Dr. Petrie and Nayland Smith, recently returned from Burma and an active servant of king and country. The story mostly takes place in and around London and the Thames river, while the heroes try to capture the mad doctor and prevent him from doing further harm. However, the doctor always escapes their grasp. Dr. Petrie ends up falling under the spell of the beautiful Karamaneh and will endeavor to aid her so she can finally free herself and her brother from the devil doctor. As the heroes track the doctor as he murders and causes mayhem, they must fear for their lives as he follows them closely with his evil dacoit henchmen. This story is a fairly interesting one which shows us a picture of the Orientals as seen by an Englishman of the late Nineteenth Century. The character of Dr. Fu-Manchu and the mystery surrounding him will appear again and again in all the writings of Sax Rohmer. He remains a classic villain and his exploits provide an entertaining yarn for those who read of them.
Rated by buyers -
Dr. Petrie is visited by long-time friend Nayland Smith and hurled into adventure. Smith, recently returned from British Burma, is on the trail of mysterious and evil Chinese scientist/political leader Dr. Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu and his fellows will stop at nothing to prevent Europe's leading students of the orient from revealing his secrets, and the plot to overturn the game of Empire as it was played in the early 20th Century to put China at the top of the world.
Fu Manchu has limited resources--a few practicers of Thuggee and Dacoits, but his scientific skills make up for this lack. He has acess to rare poisons, secret gasses, trained monkies, and control of a beautiful woman willing to lead men to their doom. This woman, however, turns out to be a key to Smith's investigation when she falls for Petrie, saving him--and Smith--from certain death at the hands of Fu Manchu.
The opening novel in the long-running Fu Manchu series (Rohmer wrote approximately 14) is well constructed and fast-moving with Smith and Petrie always a step behind the brilliant Fu Manchu, yet willing to continue with plucky British spirit. Author Sax Rohmer shows a grudging respect for the evil Fu Manchu, but reflects the fears of his time--that the 'yellow peril' is fearsome indeed, and that a clash of civilization between the west and the inscrutible east is under weigh. That Fu Manchu's nation was largely occupied by western armies, forced to admit the Opium that poisoned some of China's finest minds, and that much of the rest of the east was a part of the British Empire added only the slightest tinge of sympathy for the evil Fu Manchu.
At a time when China is set to become the world's leading economy, fears of the 'yellow peril' are increasingly common and I felt it worthwhile to give THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU MANCHU another look. I thought Rohmer's writing held up well and that this story, unlike some of his later works which rely much too extensively on coincidence and luck. All in all, FU MANCHU makes for interesting reading an serves as a bit of a time machine into the mind of the British man-in-the-streets who saw the British Empire at its greatest extent, yet felt ever-threatened by the mysterious east.
Find other books like this one:
