Command Yee Shing by Cooper Charles (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. A scarce short work issued by F.J. Thwaites, blending adventure and moral storytelling in a Chinese setting. Typical of Thwaites mid-century popular publications, this chapbook-style piece was printed in small numbers and is now rarely seen outside private collections. A distinctive example of Australian small-press fiction and orientalist narrative of the period. Red boards soiled and discolored, foxing throughout, particularly on the earlier pages and the edges. Pages tight within.

294pp, prior owner's signature front free endpaper, cloth a little stained and lightly sunned on the spine, still a sound secondhand copy in original red cloth boards. South Australian author Charles Cooper, a veteran of Gallipoli, wrote for The Bulletin and other newspapers on his return to Australia. During this time he also wrote seven novels of which four were entirely set in China. His fiction was fast paced and written for the popular market making his decision to write positively about upper class Chinese and interactions between Asia and the West all the more influential and important. Although the characters are stereotypical by today's standards he was a leader in projecting a more positive image of Chinese people than was common at the time.