Foreign Mud - an Account of the Opium War (Faber Library)

Maurice Collis

ISBN 10: 0571193013 / ISBN 13: 9780571193011

Published by Faber & Faber, United Kingdom, London, 1997

About this Item

This is one of a series of titles first published by Faber between 1930 and 1990, and in a style and format planned with a view to the appearance of the volumes on the bookshelf. Maurice Collis's account of the Opium War was first published in 1946. Opium - "foreign mud" - was smuggled into China in the early-19th century by British and other Western ships while their governments looked the other way. To the merchants it was a fair trade, particularly so because China refused to open up her markets to the world. To the Chinese court, however, it was an outrage: an affront to the dignity of the Celestial Empire by unruly foreign barbarians. War became inevitable. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Seller Inventory # GOR003574934

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Foreign Mud - an Account of the Opium War (Faber Library)
• Publisher: Faber & Faber, United Kingdom, London
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571193013
• ISBN 13: 9780571193011
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 440 grams

About this title

Synopsis

First published in 1946, Foreign Mud is a historical reconstruction of the events surrounding the illegal trade of opium in Canton during the 1830s and the ensuing Opium Wars between Britain and China. Based largely on documents written by British doctors, missionaries, merchants, and government officials, Collis's tale - far from being a dry assemblage of dates and facts - is a look at British imperialism. Shifting back and forth between the fiery debates in London and the confrontations on the China coast, his story recounts, in all its complexities, a moment in time when China is forced after more than two thousand years of self-contained sufficiency to open its doors to the culture, commerce, and evangelization of the West - the casus the foreign mud, or opium, the British grew and shipped from India. Interspersed with various maps, plans, and illustrations, Foreign Mud is a historical narrative readers will find provocatively entertaining.

About the Author

Maurice Collis was born in 1889, the son of an Irish solicitor. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1911 and was posted to Burma, rising to the position of district magistrate in Rangoon in 1929, where the independence of his judgments displeased his superiors who moved him to the position of Excise Commissioner. He returned to England in 1934. He wrote over twenty books, including volumes of autobiography, travel writing, novels, histories and three plays. He died in 1973.