Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Décadence Mandchoue The China Memoirs of Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse by Edmund Trelawny Backhouse DECADENCE MANDCHOUE PDF. Decadence Mandchoue: The China Memoirs of Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, ed. Derek Sandhaus. Paul French. Uploaded by. Paul French. DÉCADENCE. Décadence Mandchoue has 34 ratings and 4 reviews. Linda said: Decadence Mandchoue, like its author, Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, is sui generis. Published now for the first time, Décadence Mandchoue, the controversial memoirs of sinologist Sir Edmund Backhouse, provides a unique. Author: Kigasar Akikasa Country: Mongolia Language: English (Spanish) Genre: Marketing Published (Last): 27 September 2012 Pages: 477 PDF File Size: 16.57 Mb ePub File Size: 7.89 Mb ISBN: 700-1-42589-490-1 Downloads: 64590 Price: Free* [ *Free Regsitration Required ] Uploader: Zulkizuru. Books by Edmund Trelawny Backhouse. Makes for a decaddence read, indeed. The Wisdom of Confucius. Hoeppli saw Backhouse a sick and aged man in a Peking then occupied by the Japanese and a hollow shell of its former self as irascible for sure, distant and out of touch with the politics and ideologies of modern England and Europe probably, but far from a close up and personal supporter of the Axis powers. A History of Chinese Literature. Some content supplied by. A third way to read the book, as neither a historical narrative nor a source of historical details, is purely as entertainment. He also presents himself as a confidant of, among others, Cixi and her chief eunuch, and writes of the favors requested of him as his influence within the court grew. The Dragon King’s Daughter. The Analects of Confucius. Grande conoscitore di trame e retroscena politici o millantatore falsario e narcisista? Decadence Mandchoue. Hans-Joachim Stark rated it really liked it Jun 26, None but the Nightingale. The book cover to look for in Shanghai starting this weekend. Love and the Turning Year. The Wallet of Kai Lung. Skip to main content. Log In Sign Up. Vitalii Prystupa rated it it was amazing Oct 13, Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies. Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Foton Peng rated it it was amazing Dec 25, Item s unavailable for purchase. Decadence Mandchoue’s Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse | CNN Travel. Aug 11, Emmapeel rated it it was amazing Shelves: Surely no surprise to us in the post-Lady Di generation. The text also contains some non- sequiturs and implausible motivations that read like the contrivances of a porn video. Malte Blas rated it really liked it Jan 16, mandchour In Backhouse, as with all of the above, we have a true and dedicated aesthete in our presence. No embellishment, no gilded lily, just pure invention; or at least exaggeration. Jan 30, Michael Flick rated it it was ok. The Sayings of Confucius Decwdence Edition. But, Sandhaus argues, the germ of truth is always there. Backhouse said many things – about politics, about China, about mandcyoue British, about Jews, about everything – he was often boastful, sometimes plain wrong, occasionally daft and repeatedly contradictory. Patrick rated it it was amazing Aug 24, But we had to get it all out there so people could make their own decisions. Sacred Places In China. Backhouse wrote in arch Victorian style, peppering his narrative incessantly with phrases in Chinese all of which are translatedFrench, Latin, Spanish, Italian, Greek, German, and Russian, and making frequent reference to literary works that aren’t likely familiar to modern readers–fortunately and unfortunately, these are all translated and explained in decadencw and hundreds of footnotes. Decadence Mandchoue – Earnshaw Books. Since his death, however, it has been established that some of his sources were forged, though it is not clear how many or by whom. Dec 28, Andrew Galbraith rated it it was amazing Shelves: Isabel rated it liked it Jul 22, Your display name should be at least 2 characters long. Cremorne and the Later London Gardens. The Nanking Atrocity, However we had to get it all out there so people could make their own decisions. Edmund Backhouse. Backhouse was born in Darlington to a Quaker family. He inherited the baronetcy in 1918 from his father, Sir Jonathan Backhouse, a director of Backhouse's Bank, Darlington, and later of Barclays Bank. He was educated at Winchester College, and went on to Merton College, Oxford, but left without a degree, fleeing the country to escape from his creditors. [1] In 1899 he arrived in Peking (now Beijing) having learnt Chinese and other languages. He remained in China for most of his life, mainly working as a translator and intermediary for Western businesses. From around 1910 he collaborated with the journalist J O P Bland on two books about Chinese history, China Under the Empress Dowager and Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking , with Backhouse providing the source materials and Bland converting them to readable manuscripts. However doubt was soon cast on the accuracy of the work. In particular China Under the Empress Dowager was claimed to be based on so-called Diary of His Excellency Ching-Shan , which was subsequently found to be a forgery. In 1913 Backhouse began to donate many Chinese manuscripts to the Bodleian Library in Oxford, hoping to receive a professorship in return. He delivered a total of eight tons of manuscripts to the Bodleian between 1913 and 1923. The provenance of several of the manuscripts was later cast into serious doubt. Nevertheless, he donated over 17,000 items, some of which "were a real treasure", including half a dozen volumes of the rare Yongle Encyclopedia of the early 1400s. [2] "The acquisition of the Backhouse collection, one of the finest and most generous gifts in the Library's history, between 1913 and 1922, greatly enriched the Bodleian's Chinese collections." [3] During the Second World War, Beijing was occupied by the Japanese. Backhouse sought refuge in the British Legation, then in the French Hospital of St Michael, where he was befriended by Dr Reinhard Hoeppli, the Honorary Swiss Consul. Dr Hoeppli commissioned Backhouse to write his memoirs, primarily as a way of occupying him, and also as a way of giving the proud old man financial assistance without insulting his poverty. On receiving the manuscripts, Hoeppli, horrified and yet fascinated by their contents, deposited copies in three major academic libraries, with instructions that they should not be published until after his death. The manuscripts describe Backhouse's supposed sexual encounters with Oscar Wilde and the French poet Paul Verlaine, but also with women including notably the Empress Dowager Cixi of China. In 1973 the British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (famous for having asserted the authenticity of the forged "Hitler diaries") read Backhouse's memoirs and described them as "pornographic," and eventually declared their contents to be figments of Backhouse's fertile imagination. The memoirs were published in 2011 as Décadence Mandchoue: The China Memoirs of Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse , edited by the American writer Derek Sandhaus, who has said that Trevor-Roper did not consult specialists in Chinese affairs, and seems to have read only enough of the text to have been disgusted by its homosexuality. While conceding that Backhouse fabricated or imagined many of these assignations, Sandhaus finds that others are plausible or independently confirmed and reasons that Backhouse spoke Chinese, Manchu, and Mongolian, the languages of the imperial household, and his account of the atmosphere and customs of the Empress Dowager's court may be more reliable than Trevor Roper allowed. [4] PDF Sugimoto PDF Sugimoto. Decadence Mandchoue: The China Memoirs of Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, ed. Derek Sandhaus. Paul French. Uploaded by. Paul French. DÉCADENCE. Décadence Mandchoue has 34 ratings and 4 reviews. Linda said: Decadence Mandchoue, like its author, Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, is sui generis. Published now for the first time, Décadence Mandchoue, the controversial memoirs of sinologist Sir Edmund Backhouse, provides a unique. Author: Faeshakar Yozshuk Country: Turks & Caicos Islands Language: English (Spanish) Genre: Education Published (Last): 17 June 2015 Pages: 385 PDF File Size: 14.63 Mb ePub File Size: 19.5 Mb ISBN: 297-3-18462-468-9 Downloads: 12467 Price: Free* [ *Free Regsitration Required ] Uploader: Zolokazahn. At Kobo, we try to ensure that published reviews do not contain rude or profane language, spoilers, or any of our reviewer’s personal information. Decadence Mandchoue – Earnshaw Books. In a certain sense, the author’s achievement would be still more extraordinary if all the colorful vivid and in their way fascinating stories had been created by the author’s imagination, especially if one remembers his age and the absence of any literary or other help. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. We appreciate your feedback. Some content supplied by. Backhouse was his antithesis and so, as bores and bullies have done down through the ages, he went for him with all guns blazing. Zungyue rated it it was amazing Nov 04, Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Alternately shocking and lyrical, it is the masterwork of a linguistic genius—a tremendous literary achievement and a sensational account of the inner workings of the Manchu dynasty in the years before its collapse in Hans-Joachim Stark rated it really liked it Jun 26, The Wallet of Kai Lung. His command of Chinese is impressive, and he clearly enjoys relating the poetic Chinese terms for both anatomy and sex acts. Trevor-Roper grabbed onto many of these random thoughts and death bed statements while writing in the knowing post-war world of the s – how hindsight is a useful gift to the prejudiced biographer looking to point score. However, by going back to the original texts we encounter their initial protector and early editor Dr. The original sexpat: Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse. The Wisdom of Confucius. Jandchoue one point Cixi travels in disguise to a bathhouse where she demands to see various homosexual acts performed, supposedly for her edification. Zhuangzi and Modern Chinese Literature. So a little exaggeration to boost the legacy is fine, by and decadencw. There are a few parts that are important from a historical perspective, but not for advancing the plot. Hoeppli knew Backhouse, and was his physician as well as his confidant and literary executor. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. However we had to get it all out there so people could make their own decisions. Tom Carter rated it it was amazing Nov 14, Enter the email address you signed up with and we’ll email you a reset link. He protected his sources, changed names, used aliases and fabricated identities. He also presents himself as a decadencce of, among others, Cixi and her xecadence eunuch, and writes of the favors requested of him as his influence within the court grew. Backhouse lived in China for more than 40 years before writing the book and he offers a wealth of unusual information. James Bruce 8th Earl of Elgin. His depictions of the aging regent and tales of intrigue in the imperial court form the narrative structure for these memoirs. Four Seasons decadwnce T’ang Poetry. Open Preview See a Problem? Terry Crossman rated it really liked it Dec 02, Charles Regester-cowan rated it liked it Nov 24, Later prudes like Trevor-Roper were appalled and not out of any concerns over the reputation of the elderly Chinese lady mentioned above! No trivia or quizzes yet. The Songs of the South. Please review your cart. Percy Decadwnce rated it it was ok Sep 01, Memoirs of Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse. This is a collection which has been described to the file and/or item level. To identify the box/es you wish to see, please use the 'Navigate this collection' tree to find and note the shelfmarks of the items you wish to see. Remote users: Please email [email protected] quoting the shelfmarks of the items you wish to see and the date of your intended visit. You may order up to ten items. Weston users: Please complete one green slip per shelfmark and hand this to a member of staff at the reserve. You may have up to ten items on reserve. Review of Decadence Mandchoue. Backhouse, Edmund Trelawny. Decadence Mandchoue: The China Memoirs of Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse. Ed. Derek Sandhaus. Hong Kong: Earnshaw, 2011. Make no mistake about it: Decadence Mandchoue is a work of pure fantasy, for the most part a remarkably monotonous fantasy, of sex, sex, sex. I can’t imagine anyone reading through the whole thing unless he has a real taste for Victorian gay pornography; I don’t, so it was skip, skip, skip. The few non-pornographic bits are something else, though; these are like fragments of a late Victorian historical romance, an Anthony Hope imitation with Peking as Ruritania. If that makes it sound appealing, give it a shot, but be aware that this is only a small part of the book. The author of this really odd book, presented as an autobiographical memoir, was Edmund Backhouse, the subject of a really interesting book, The Hermit of Peking , by Hugh Trevor-Roper. Backhouse was originally known as a somewhat eccentric sinologist who published two books on Qing Dynasty politics in collaboration with British journalist J. O. P. Bland, and who gave the Bodleian Museum one of the best collections of Chinese books in Europe. Trevor-Roper, however, uncovered a lot more interesting information than this, and The Hermit of Peking is much more entertaining (for the most part) than Decadence Mandchoue. Still, the starting point for Trevor-Roper’s book was in fact just Backhouse’s two volumes of reminiscences: Decadence Mandchoue is the second, the first remains unpublished. Trevor-Roper was asked to authenticate them and was immediately interested by the incredible nature of the stories the books told. After diligent spadework, he dug up some remarkable information about the complex scams and fantasies that Backhouse inflicted on anyone unlucky enough to get involved with him. Naturally anyone who is interested in this book should read Hermit of Peking first, otherwise most of it won’t make any sense, not even the sex. Oddly, though, Trevor-Roper comes in for some heavy criticism in the introduction from the editor of Decadence Mandchoue, Derek Sandhaus. I find most of this criticism hard to accept. For instance, Sandhaus complains that Trevor-Roper did not make any attempt to “consult Backhouse’s Chinese and Manchu contemporaries.” He concedes that Trevor-Roper could hardly have gone to Peking in 1976 during the Cultural Revolution, but insists that “he could have spoken with former Peking residents who had left China around the time of the Communist takeover in 1949. These people would have been in a unique position to confirm or refute Backhouse’s claims.” In fact, Trevor-Roper did consult Peking residents: he talked to Harold Acton, Henri Vetch, Roland de Margerie, Hope Danby, Humphrey Prideaux-Brune, and to William Lewisohn, a true contemporary of Backhouse, 90 years old when Trevor-Roper contacted him. Most of these people actually met Backhouse; some, like Danby, saw him often and must count as friends, others, like Lewisohn, tried to unravel some of Backhouse’s complicated literary scams and showed Trevor-Roper their correspondence with Backhouse. Sandhaus would apparently discount all these people and insist on Chinese acquaintances, but except for his servants, Backhouse’s Chinese acquaintances are unknown. How was Trevor-Roper to contact them? You need names first, and no one ever got names of real Chinese acquaintances out of Backhouse. When the American Bank Note Company was trying to figure out what happened to their contract for 650 million banknotes, they interviewed the Chinese politicians Backhouse claimed he had made his crooked deal with: Hsu Shih-ch’ang, former President, and Tuan Ch’i-jui, then Prime Minister. Their response: Never heard of him. Signature on the contract? A forgery. Given Backhouse’s skill at concealing virtually all of his personal life, I think Trevor-Roper did the best that could be done. Of course he did not have the skills to dig into the Chinese side of things, but because of the fake diary that Backhouse produced for his work with Bland, both Western and Chinese scholars looked hard for his Chinese acquaintances (or accomplices). Nothing has turned up and the origin of the fake diary remains a mystery. This silence is puzzling. A number of Western scholars studied and lived in Peking in this period, and show up in various reminiscences, Chinese and Western, but not Backhouse. The best we can get is a claim from a Backhouse acquaintance that a rickshaw puller once told him there was a rumor that Backhouse used to be the lover of the Empress Dowager. How did the puller know the rumor? How does anyone know a rumor? “Some dude told me.” Behind Sandhaus’s criticism of Trevor-Roper lies an idea: there is, somewhere, somehow, some fragment of truth to Backhouse’s memoir, and in justice to Backhouse we must examine his work sentence by sentence, confirming or refuting until we have found it. Please. Trevor-Roper found plenty of evidence that there were outrageous lies in Backhouse’s memoirs. No doubt it might be an entertaining process to try and find some truth in them as well, but we need not delay any decision on how much to rely on Backhouse without examination. You’d have to be nuts to believe a word he wrote.