9 h 0 minAudiobook3 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 wit, fables, elaborate manners in prose, and tales told within tales, with cunning, fate, and storytelling at their heart.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A storyteller talks his way through danger
- Politeness becomes a form of comedy
- Fate, cunning, and the small man's luck
- A book of tales that wink at the reader
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The Wallet of Kai Lung
by Ernest Bramah · 1900
In an imagined China, a poor storyteller uses courteous tales and quiet mischief to meet danger and win favor.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
A storyteller talks his way through danger
Kai Lung is not a warrior or a rich man. His only wealth is his skill with words, and the title points to that, since the wallet is where a storyteller keeps his tales. When trouble finds him, he does not fight. He begins a story.
This is the old trick of the storyteller who must please his listeners to stay safe. Each tale he offers is also a small act of persuasion. The listener is drawn in, and the teller gains time and goodwill.
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What is The Wallet of Kai Lung about?
It is a collection of comic tales told by Kai Lung, a poor traveling storyteller in an imagined China. His stories, full of cunning, fate, and courtly speech, also help him through his own troubles.
Who is Kai Lung?
Kai Lung is the storyteller at the center of the book. He lives by his wits and his words, and he uses the tales he tells to win favor and meet danger.
Is The Wallet of Kai Lung a true story or real Chinese folklore?
No. Ernest Bramah, an English author, wrote it in 1900. The China in it is an imagined, playful setting, and the ornate speech is his own invention in the spirit of fables.
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).
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