7 h 7 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 7 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if you pay a friend to kill you, then discover you desperately want to live?
Kin-Fo has money, leisure, and a comfortable home in Shanghai, but none of it gives him pleasure. When news arrives that his fortune is lost, he decides to die—and wants his death to benefit those he loves. His philosopher friend Wang becomes part of a deadly bargain.
Then Kin-Fo finds reason to live again. Wang has disappeared, and permission to kill is not so easily withdrawn. With his servant Soun beside him and two insurance agents eager to keep him alive, Kin-Fo sets off across China to stop the arrangement he puts in motion.
What you’ll discover
- A bargain turned trap Follow a man whose greatest danger comes from a choice he now desperately regrets.
- Happiness under pressure Wang's belief that hardship makes happiness possible gives the chase a sharp philosophical edge.
- An unlikely survival team Soun and two insurance agents join a journey where keeping Kin-Fo alive matters urgently.
- China on the move Travel through cities, roads, and waterways as social customs shape the course of pursuit.
- Money meets dark comedy Discover how practical matters of insurance turn a bleak decision into an absurd adventure.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy adventure with a smile, odd travelling companions, inventive gadgets, and a spoiled hero who learns what a day of life is worth.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rich man's boredom invites a strange toast
- A rebel guest becomes the household philosopher
- A late letter wipes out a fortune
- He insures his own death against every risk
- He buys a coffin and asks Wang to kill him
- Two inseparable agents watch a very odd client
- A comic fame sends Kin-Fo across China
- A chase, a bridge and an interrupted wedding
- A ship of coffins, a storm and a shark
- What the story says about happiness and work
- How Verne tells the tale with jokes and gadgets
Who’s who
- Kin-FoA rich, bored young man of Shanghai who plans his own death, then wants badly to live and marry.
- WangThe philosopher and former Taiping rebel who has lived in Kin-Fo's house for years and teaches him maxims.
- Lé-ouA gentle young widow in Peking, engaged to Kin-Fo, who waits for his voice and hopes for a happy marriage.
- SounKin-Fo's clumsy, greedy and cowardly valet, who fears for his queue and wants only rice and sleep.
- Craig and FryTwo American cousins who act as one man and guard Kin-Fo for an insurance company, to protect its money.
- William J. BidulphThe talkative chief agent of the Centenary, who sells Kin-Fo his policy and wants him to live to a hundred.
- Lao-ShenA Taiping chief and old comrade of Wang who lives beyond the Great Wall and is said to be a feared bandit.
Formats and delivery
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
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- Hardcover
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Les Tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine
by Jules Verne · 1879
In Shanghai, a bored millionaire asks his friend to kill him, then spends two months running for his life.
Medium level5–10 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if you were rich, healthy, thirty-one years old and bored with everything? Kin-Fo, a young man of Shanghai, plans to marry.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A rich man's boredom invites a strange toast
The story opens on a flower boat on the Pearl River at Canton, where six men finish a feast of one hundred and fifty dishes. The host is Kin-Fo, young, healthy, cultured and very rich. His friends argue over whether life is good, and he says Pah.
Only Wang, his bespectacled philosopher, has an answer. Happiness is like health, he says, and a man who has never been without it cannot enjoy it. Then Kin-Fo announces that in two weeks he will marry, to break up his monotony. Wang warns that being bored together is worse than being bored alone.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1879
- Language
- français
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Verne, Jules. Tribulations of a Chinaman in China. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/tribulations-of-a-chinaman-in-china.
Verne, J. (2026). Tribulations of a Chinaman in China. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tribulations-of-a-chinaman-in-china (Original work published 1879)
Verne, Jules. Tribulations of a Chinaman in China. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tribulations-of-a-chinaman-in-china.
@book{verne2026tribulations,
author = {Verne, Jules},
title = {Tribulations of a Chinaman in China},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tribulations-of-a-chinaman-in-china},
note = {First published 1879}
}
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What is Tribulations of a Chinaman in China about?
It follows Kin-Fo, a wealthy and bored young man in Shanghai who believes he is ruined, insures his life and asks a friend to kill him. When his luck changes, he must flee across China to stay alive.
Who are Craig and Fry in Tribulations of a Chinaman in China?
They are two American cousins who work for the Centenary life insurance company. They look and think so alike that they finish each other's sentences, and they follow Kin-Fo everywhere to protect the money the company stands to lose.
Who is Wang and why does he matter?
Wang is Kin-Fo's philosopher, teacher and constant companion. He is also a former Taiping rebel whom Kin-Fo's father once sheltered. Kin-Fo asks him for one terrible favour, and that promise drives the plot.
The author
Jules Verne
1828–1905 · French adventure novelist
Jules Verne was a French writer born in Nantes in 1828. He lived in Paris and later in Amiens, where he died in 1905. His novels include Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).
More by Jules Verne
Voir tous ses livresMore like this
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