Robert Elegant. First edition, second printing. Dust Jacket: Very Good. A beautifully designed, unclipped jacket by Tony Chen. There is a small tear on the top of spine. Hardcover: Very Good+ London: Allen Lane, 1982. This is a Taiwan edition, published by Caves Books, Ltd., Taipei. Red cloth with gold lettering on the spine. No writing or markings in the book, 560 pp. There are some pages that have been machine cut, but does not effect the reading of the book (this is reflected in the reduced price).
The novel is about the demise of the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the conquering Manchus in seventeenth century China.
The book was first published in the U.K. In 1980 and then in the United States (McGraw-Hill) in 1984. This particular Taiwan edition was published in 1982.
Elegant was born in New York and spent a great deal of time in Asia as a journalist. His novel, Dynasty, was an international best-selling book in the late 1970's.
