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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the only thing between you and danger is the next story you tell?
Kai Lung earns his bread with words. A poor wandering storyteller, he faces danger and bargains for safety by telling tales. In Ernest Bramah's Kai Lung's Golden Hours, each story sits inside a larger story, where wit becomes more than a pleasure: it is a means of survival.
The setting is an invented China, not a portrait of a real place. Mandarins, village headmen, scholars, bandits and spirits share a world of elaborate courtesy. Beneath those polite words lies a sharp sense of the absurd, as humble people and wanderers face officials, rich men, rivals and magical powers.
What you’ll discover
- Stories within a story Follow Kai Lung's precarious life as his tales become a way to bargain for safety.
- Courtesy with a sting Enjoy grave, flowery exchanges where enormous politeness carries a quiet edge of irony.
- Wit against power Meet humble figures whose cleverness challenges the advantages of rank and force.
- An invented world Wander among scholars, bandits and spirits in a setting shaped for tales rather than realism.
- Pride under scrutiny Find gentle but pointed humor in stories that expose the absurdities of power and pride.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy tales nested inside tales, dry humor, clever heroines, courtly speech with a sting, and watching a quick mind outwit the powerful.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A storyteller becomes a suspect
- A useful tale delays judgment
- Private fears can turn a court
- Calm answers can undo schemes
- Hwa-mei steps into the danger
- A robe exposes useful fears
- A sharp question beats boldness
- Stories and escape plans draw together
- Words carry both care and resistance
Who’s who
- Kai LungA wandering storyteller with a story ready for every danger, who wants to stay alive and to win the woman who helps him.
- Hwa-meiCalled the Golden Mouse, she is the Mandarin's trusted listener and a planner who feeds Kai Lung news, fruit, and clever advice.
- Shan TienThe mandarin of Yu-ping, vain, curious, and fond of stories, who promises a painful sentence while enjoying each new tale.
- Ming-shuThe secretary who writes down the Mandarin's words and keeps plotting Kai Lung's death to win favor.
- Li-loeThe greedy doorkeeper of the yamen who offers friendship for coins and keeps searching the yard for a cask of wine.
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Kai Lung's Golden Hours
by Ernest Bramah · 1922
A captive storyteller uses clever tales to postpone execution while a maiden brings him fruit.
Challenging5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Slowly, slowly; walk slowly.”
In short
What would you do if your life depended on telling the right story at the right moment? Kai Lung, a wandering storyteller, finds out.
Kai Lung's Golden Hours at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 10 min4 h 5 min fast, 6 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 73,300 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1922by Ernest Bramah
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Nap in the Wood Changes Everything
The book opens on the straight road from Loo-chow to Yu-ping. Kai Lung, a teller of imagined tales, lies down in the only shade for miles and falls asleep. He wakes to the laughter of two maidens. One flees, but the other stays, chewing the stem of a red blossom, and asks which stories pay best.
Kai Lung answers with a lesson in his trade. A good storyteller reads his crowd.
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Details
- First published
- 1922
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 5 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Bramah, Ernest. Kai Lung's Golden Hours. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/kai-lungs-golden-hours.
Bramah, E. (2026). Kai Lung's golden hours. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/kai-lungs-golden-hours (Original work published 1922)
Bramah, Ernest. Kai Lung's Golden Hours. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/kai-lungs-golden-hours.
@book{bramah2026kai,
author = {Bramah, Ernest},
title = {Kai Lung's Golden Hours},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/kai-lungs-golden-hours},
note = {First published 1922}
}
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What is Kai Lung's Golden Hours about?
It follows Kai Lung, a wandering storyteller in an imagined China, who is arrested by Mandarin Shan Tien and survives each trial by telling a tale suited to the moment, helped by the clever Hwa-mei.
Who is Hwa-mei?
Hwa-mei, called the Golden Mouse, serves in the Mandarin's household as his trusted listener. She meets Kai Lung in a wood, then helps him from outside his cell with fruit, news, disguises, and plans.
Is Kai Lung's Golden Hours a true story?
No. Ernest Bramah invented the setting, the tales, and the proverbs, writing in the manner of Chinese storytelling. The book is comic fiction first published in the early twentieth century.
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).
“Slowly, slowly; walk slowly.”
More by Ernest Bramah
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