- Paperback: 198 pages
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press; New edition edition (2 Jun 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0226848795
- ISBN-13: 978-0226848792
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13.5 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,061,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Haunted Monastery: A Judge Dee Mystery
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"If you have not yet discovered Judge Dee, I envy you that initial pleasure." - Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times "The China of old, in Mr. van Gulik's skilled hands, comes vividly alive again." - Allen J. Hubin, New York Times Book Review"
Product Description
The Abbot of a Taoist Monastery is dead after delivering an ecstatic sermon. The monks call it a supernatural experience, but the judge calls it murder. Recalling the allegedly accidental deaths of three young women in the same monastery, Judge Dee seeks clues in the eyes of a cat to solve cases of impersonation and murder. A painting by one of the victims reveals the truth about the killings, propelling the judge on a quest for justice and revenge.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
The two men sitting close together in the secluded room, up in the tower of the old monastery, listened for a while silently to the roar of the storm that was raging among the dark mountains outside. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The two men sitting close together in the secluded room, up in the tower of the old monastery, listened for a while silently to the roar of the storm that was raging among the dark mountains outside. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Haunted Monastery is possibly the best of the Judge Dee novels. As the Judge would say, all the elements are here: an immensely appealing and exotic locale, eroticism without pornography, characters we come to care about, a duel between confucianism and taoism, romance, a monstrous murderer, a damsel in distress, a dauntless hero and more atmosphere than you can shake a chopstick at. Van Gulik makes ancient China come alive, and makes us believe that the people who lived in it, no matter how alien on the surface, are more like us than not. A good read anytime...but a great read on a dark and stormy night.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This author was not known to me, until very recently. I was passing an idle hour on the internet, when it occurred to me to search for films in which there are polygamous characters, or in which polygamy is a theme. ie One of the characters has more than one wife at once. This brought me to a made-for-TV film called "Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders."(1974) This is set in ancient China, and features an investigating magistrate named Judge Dee, who finds himself spending a stormy night, with his three wives, in a remote Taoist monastery. It seems strange things have been going on there--the death of the former Abbot, the death under mysterious circumstances, of three young women who were hoping to become nuns.
Well, I don't recall having seen the film, and I don't know if it's on DVD. But the Robert Van Gulik novel is still available.
The novel is not long--about 150 pages or so, so not too intimidating, if your are not familiar with this author. It opens dramatically: Judge Dee is travelling in his carriage with his three wives, and servants, when the carriage gets stuck, in a terrible storm. They are in a mountainous area, a long way from habitation. However, up the hill a ways, is a Taoist monastery. So the judge, his wives and companions, spend the night there.
The plot is constructed well. At first, it is not clear (either to Judge Dee, or to the reader) if any crime has been committed. Then more information is discovered, just incomplete glimpses of the whole picture. Towards the end, a couple of revelations reveals the truth.
So, a mystery in the classic style, with an unusual (and for me, very interesting) setting. The character drawing is sharp, too.
The author seems to have written his Judge Dee novels for fun. By day, he was a Dutch diplomat, who worked variously, in India, China (where he married a chinese woman), and Japan.
I am now going through the whole series, in the order of the time when they are set. So next, "The Chinese Gold Murders", which is set at the beginning of the Judge's career; then "The Lacquer Screen", and so on. (See Wikipedia for the comlete list, in order).
I found "The Haunted Monastery" a good introduction to Judge Dee.
Well, I don't recall having seen the film, and I don't know if it's on DVD. But the Robert Van Gulik novel is still available.
The novel is not long--about 150 pages or so, so not too intimidating, if your are not familiar with this author. It opens dramatically: Judge Dee is travelling in his carriage with his three wives, and servants, when the carriage gets stuck, in a terrible storm. They are in a mountainous area, a long way from habitation. However, up the hill a ways, is a Taoist monastery. So the judge, his wives and companions, spend the night there.
The plot is constructed well. At first, it is not clear (either to Judge Dee, or to the reader) if any crime has been committed. Then more information is discovered, just incomplete glimpses of the whole picture. Towards the end, a couple of revelations reveals the truth.
So, a mystery in the classic style, with an unusual (and for me, very interesting) setting. The character drawing is sharp, too.
The author seems to have written his Judge Dee novels for fun. By day, he was a Dutch diplomat, who worked variously, in India, China (where he married a chinese woman), and Japan.
I am now going through the whole series, in the order of the time when they are set. So next, "The Chinese Gold Murders", which is set at the beginning of the Judge's career; then "The Lacquer Screen", and so on. (See Wikipedia for the comlete list, in order).
I found "The Haunted Monastery" a good introduction to Judge Dee.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Nice short mystery. You'll be grateful to Van Gulik for giving his characters, from Sixth Century China, such a naturalness of expression. You'll never be bored by forced idioms, just as you'll never be asked to sit helplessly by as obvious differences between that culture and ours get exploited to the realm of the cliche (for instance, Judge Dee's three wives actually get along and are a natural part of the plot). Trouble is, the plot's a bit pedestrian when all's said and done -- a very formula production (as, let's admit it, are most mysteries).
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Another great Judge Dee mystery
Judge Dee is loosely based on an actual historical ancient Chinese figure, wonderfully brought to life by Gulik. Read more
Published on 4 April 2009 by N. Rossis
This is a slow slow descriptive descriptive shallow shallow
If I were just learning how to write this would be a prefect example. Forty five percent of the book is description. Read more
Published on 17 July 2005 by bernie
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
