9 h 0 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your only defense against danger is a tale told with exquisite politeness?
Kai Lung is a poor traveling storyteller in an imagined China. He has no riches or warrior's strength, only his skill with words. In Ernest Bramah's linked comic tales, he earns his bread through stories—and uses them to meet danger and win favor. His own troubles frame the tales he tells.
The Wallet of Kai Lung brings clever peasants, proud officials, and spirits into a world where fate and cunning shape people's paths. Strange bargains and charms sit beside everyday village and market life. Through it all, grand courtesy carries a quiet mischief: a speaker can lavish praise on a guest while insulting himself with elaborate ceremony.
What you’ll discover
- Words against danger Follow a storyteller whose tales are tools for facing trouble and winning favor.
- Courtesy with a sting Enjoy the dry comedy of flowery praise, humble phrases, and elaborate self-insults.
- Fate meets cunning Watch clever people face forces that set them on paths they cannot see.
- Magic beside the market Enter villages where spirits, charms, and strange bargains belong to ordinary life.
- Tales within tales Discover stories held together by Kai Lung's troubles and his gift for telling.
Who will love it
For readers who love dry humor, courtesy used as a weapon, and short tales of luck and cunning. Fans of fables, fairy-tale China and stories within stories will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A storyteller talks his way past a brigand
- A young scholar meets the greed of officials
- Good luck and bad luck arrive as one prize
- A battle, a magician's house and a lovers' parting
- An officially dead man makes a strange discovery
- Two tales of clever young men and clever schemes
- Reformers, fools and the storyteller himself
- Revenge and charity bring odd consequences
- A family quest and a picture-maker's ambition
Who’s who
- Kai LungA poor storyteller whose quick tongue and many tales get him out of danger and into trouble in turn.
- Lin YiA scarred brigand who is bitterly polite and who agrees to hear one story before his men act.
- LingA gentle scholar who wants only to study and is drafted as a soldier by an examination board.
- MianA brave young embroiderer, raised by a feared magician, who saves Ling and wants to marry him.
- Chang-ch'unA rich Canton speculator who sells shares in ventures and sees profit even in a living man's body.
- Yung ChangA scholar who has failed his degree many times and hopes a new discovery will win him Ning.
- Sen HengAn honest, trusting young man who follows rules so literally that he makes a muddle of his early jobs.
- Tung FelA stern stranger who arrives in Ching-fow with a plan to end the rule of a hated Mandarin.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 9 h 0 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Wallet of Kai Lung
by Ernest Bramah · 1900
A penniless storyteller must talk his way out of a brigand's noose in a dark forest.
Challenging5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A storyteller walks into a forest at dusk and finds a gun pointed at his chest. How does he escape?
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A storyteller talks his way past a brigand
The book opens as Kai Lung, a traveling storyteller, enters a forest of camphor laurel near the city of Knei Yang. He sees a matchlock aimed at him from behind a tree. The man who steps out is Lin Yi, a scarred and notorious brigand.
Kai Lung does not fight. He praises his captor and suggests the real prize is a Mandarin on the road. Lin Yi answers in the same mock-courteous style, calling his own cave a humble hovel and a rope round the neck a privilege. Each insult is wrapped in a compliment, and the reader learns the book's central joke at once.
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What is The Wallet of Kai Lung about?
It is a series of comic tales told by Kai Lung, a wandering storyteller. Starting with a captured traveler's tale to a brigand, it ranges over examinations, bureaucrats, lovers, inventors and revenge, all in elaborate polite speech.
Is The Wallet of Kai Lung a true story or based on real China?
No. It is fiction by Ernest Bramah, set in an imagined China of proverbs, Mandarins and spirits. Its playful tales are not a guide to historical customs.
Who is Kai Lung?
Kai Lung is a poor, quick-witted storyteller who travels from village to village. He frames most of the tales, speaking about himself as a humble person while sparring with his audience.
The author
Ernest Bramah
1868–1942 · English novelist
Ernest Bramah was an English author born in Manchester in 1868. He later lived in London and died in 1942. He wrote fiction featuring Kai Lung and the blind detective Max Carrados. His books include The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900), Max Carrados (1914), and Kai Lung’s Golden Hours (1922).
More by Ernest Bramah
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