
THE KAI LUNG FANTASY SERIES (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. The Wallet of Kai Lung, Kai Lung's Golden Hours & Kai Lung Unrolls His MatBy Ernest BramahLength29h 51m
About this audiobook
The Kai Lung Fantasy Series gathers the intricately nested tales of Kai Lung, an itinerant storyteller whose wit, eloquence, and narrative ingenuity repeatedly save him from danger. Cast in a mock-archaic, pseudo-Chinese idiom, the books combine fable, satire, romance, and comic paradox, echoing the frame-tale traditions of The Arabian Nights while reflecting the Edwardian fascination with imagined "Oriental" worlds. Bramah's ornate circumlocutions and proverbial flourishes are not mere decoration: they form a sustained comic style in which language itself becomes a means of survival. Ernest Bramah, born Ernest Bramah Smith in 1868, was an English writer of unusual range, also known for the blind detective Max Carrados. His career in journalism, publishing, and popular fiction sharpened his ear for verbal precision and genre convention. Though not a sinologist, Bramah drew on the literary tastes and orientalist fantasies of his age, transforming them into a highly stylized, self-conscious art of storytelling. This series is recommended to readers who enjoy elegant wit, elaborate prose, and fiction that celebrates the power of narrative invention. Modern readers should approach its period assumptions critically, but its verbal brilliance, structural ingenuity, and humane comic intelligence remain distinctive and rewarding.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
GenreFantasy, Humor
Length29 hrs 51 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateApr 25, 2016
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
2Introduction
3Historical Context
4Synopsis (Selection)
5THE KAI LUNG FANTASY SERIES: The Wallet of Kai Lung, Kai Lung's Golden Hours & Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat
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6THE WALLET OF KAI LUNG
7The Transmutation of Ling (pt. 1)
8The Transmutation of Ling (pt. 2)
9The Story of Yung Chang
10The Probation of Sen Heng
11The Experiment of the Mandarin Chan Hung
12The Confession of Kai Lung
13The Vengeance of Tung Fel
14The Career of the Charitable Quen-Ki-Tong
15The Vision of Yin, the Son of Yat Huang
16The Ill-Regulated Destiny of Kin Yen, the Picture-Maker
17KAI LUNG'S GOLDEN HOURS
18The Encountering of Six Within a Wood
19The Inexorable Justice of the Mandarin Shan Tien
20The Degraded Persistence of the Effete Ming-Shu
21The Inopportune Behaviour of the Covetous Li-Loe
22The Timely Intervention of the Mandarin Shan Tien’s Lucky Day
23The High-Minded Strategy of the Amiable Hwa-Mei
24Not Concerned With Any Particular Attribute of Those Who Are Involved
25The Timely Disputation Among Those of an Inner Chamber of Yu-Ping
26The Propitious Dissension Between Two Whose General Attributes Have Already Been Sufficiently Described
27The Incredible Obtuseness of Those Who Had Opposed the Virtuous Kai Lung
28Of Which It Is Written: “in Shallow Water Dragons Become the Laughing-Stock of Shrimps”
29The Out-Passing Into a State of Assured Felicity of the Much-Enduring Two With Whom These Printed Leaves Have Chiefly Been Concerned
30KAI LUNG UNROLLS HIS MAT
31Part I. The Protecting Ancestors
32The Malignity of the Depraved Ming-Shu Rears Its Offensive Head
33The Difficult Progression of the Virtuous Kai Lung Assumes a Concrete Form
34The Further Continuance of Kai Lung’s Quest and His Opportune Encounter With an Outcast Band, All Ignorant of the Classical Examples of the Past
35At the Extremity of His Resource, the Continent Kai Lung Encounters One Who Leads the Unaffected Life
36The Meeting by the Way With the Warrior of Chi-U and What Emerged Therefrom
37The Ambiguous Face Upon the One Found in a Wood and the Effete Ming-Shu’s Dilemma
38The Concave-Witted Li-Loe’s Insatiable Craving Serves a Meritorious End and Two (Who Shall Be Nameless) Are Led Toward a Snare
39In Which the Position of the Estimable Kai Lung Is Such That He Must Either Go Up or Down
40Wherein the Footsteps of the Two Who Have Induced These Printed Leaves Assume a Homeward Bend
41Part II. The Great Sky Lantern
42How Kai Lung Sought to Discourage One Who Did Not Gain His Approbation
43Part III. The Bringer of Good News
44Whereby the Angle at Which Events Present Themselves May Be Varied
45Analysis
46Reflection
47Memorable Quotes