Treason By The Book

Jonathan Spence is the world's most distinguished scholar of Chinese history. He has written numerous critically acclaimed books, including The Search for Modern China (1990), The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolutions 1895-1980 (1982), The Chan’s Great Continent: China in Western Minds (1998) and the biography Mao Zedong (1999). However, one of his greatest achievements as a historian is his popularity. Many historians are admired by their peers, but very few are able to reach an audience outside the corridors of academia. Like all great historians, Jonathan Spence has an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject and a powerful analytic mind. Fortunately for general readers, though, he is also a vivid storyteller, with the elegant prose of a literary novelist and the narrative skills of a thriller writer, which goes a long way toward explaining how his books about arcane matters of Chinese history keep landing on the New York Times bestseller list.

In Treason by the Book, Spence recounts the fascinating story of a conspiracy to overthrow the Manchu dynasty of China. This true story has all the elements of a le Carré novel — shady characters, unexpected plots twists, high-level corruption — and Spence makes the most of it. He creates exquisite tension by revealing his story slowly, drawing the reader along toward the inevitable conclusion. However, Spence rewards his reader with much more than a great story. With finely drawn descriptions of the surrounding political and cultural milieu, he paints a vivid portrait of one of the world's most interesting cultures during a time of great upheaval. Farley, Powells.com

A plot against an eighteenth-century Chinese emperor is unraveled — and a vanished culture is illuminated — in this riveting account from an acclaimed historian.

On an October morning in 1728, the most powerful military and civilian official in northwest China was on his way home from a colleague's party when a stranger ran toward him and passed him a large envelope. To the official's astonishment, the mysterious package contained a secret, treacherous plot to overthrow the Manchu government — a conspiracy that renowned historian Jonathan Spence here recounts in a gripping blend of cultural history and compelling narration.

With the same vivid storytelling that made books like The Professor and the Madman, Longitude, and the author's own The Death of Woman Wang as entertaining and exciting as the most compelling novel, Treason by the Book uses this particularly dramatic and wonderfully colorful moment to illuminate a fascinating time and culture. With a compelling cast of characters-the plot unfolds like a page-turning thriller. Drawing on the rich original manuscripts stored in the Beijing and Taipei archives, Jonathan Spence's amazing storytelling reveals much about the political and legal systems of eighteenth-century China. A mesmerizing and historically accurate portrait, Treason by the Book will appeal to all readers of superb narrative nonfiction.

"Once again, Jonathan Spence will enthrall his readers by merging serious scholarship with brilliant narrative. Treason by the Book is history at its best." Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking