Mandarin (Elegant novel)

rdf:langString Mandarin (Elegant novel)

rdf:langString Mandarin is a Robert Elegant historical novel published by Simon & Schuster in 1983. It is set in China during the Taiping Rebellion. It is the third to appear of Elegant's "Imperial China Trilogy", the first being Dynasty (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977) and the second being Manchu (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980). Kirkus Reviews called it "Another Elegant Sino-spectacular" in which "against a vast, cheerfully over-simplified wash of mid-19th-century Chinese history, fictional families (plus a few real-life movers and shakers) launch or muddle through Great Events." The review continues, "Intricate shuttlecock diplomacy, ceremonial/battle action, family saga/romance--all polished to an entertaining high gloss: a virtuoso pop-panorama, with fresh angles even if you've already read a dozen other China-history novels". The historian Gary Olsen in a discussion of the advantages and drawbacks of historical fiction in teaching history, defends Elegant's novels of China. "In Mandarin," he comments,"Robert Elegant manages to concentrate, in a few telling and engaging characters, the human drama of China during the last fifty years of the past century." His novels, including Dynasty and Manchu, fall into the category of historical novel that "admits imagination and embellishment, but is never overwhelmed by them. In these works, history remains the dominant partner. Major historical figures do not suffer the indignity of having their names changed and their actions altered; fictional characters play clearly subordinated roles; history is faithfully related."