René Leys

by Victor Segalen, J.A. Underwood (Translator), Ian Buruma (Preface)

In this entrancing story of spiritual adventure, a Westerner in Peking seeks the mystery at the heart of the Forbidden City. He takes as a tutor in Chinese the young Belgian René Leys, who claims to be in the know about strange goings-on in the Imperial Palace: love affairs, family quarrels, conspiracies that threaten the very existence of the empire. But whether truth-teller or trickster, the elusive and ever-charming René presents his increasingly dazzled disciple with a visionary glimpse of "an essential palace built upon the most magnificent foundations."

Genres: Fiction, Classics, France, Literature, Asia, Historical Fiction, French Literature

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Victor Segalen was a French naval doctor, ethnographer, archeologist, writer, poet, explorer, art-theorist, linguist and literary critic.

He was born in Brest. He studied naval medicine in Bordeaux. He traveled and lived in Polynesia (1903–1905) and China (1909–1914 and 1917). He died by accident in a forest in Huelgoat, France ('under mysterious circumstances' and reputedly with an open copy of Hamlet by his side).

In 1934, the French state inscribed his name on the walls of the Panthéon because of his sacrifice for his country during World War I.

He gave his name to the Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2 University of medicine, literature and social sciences in Bordeaux under the Academy of Bordeaux where he studied, and to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Brest where he was born.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Markus · Rating 5 out of 5]

René Leys
Par Victor Segalen (1878 – 1919)

Victor Segalen était un romancier français, poète, médecin, ethnographe archéologue et sinologue.
En août 1909 il entreprit une expédition de dix mois en Chine centrale. Il s’installe à Pékin en mars 1910 avec sa femme et son fils Yvon.
C’est là, en 1911 qu’Il écrit le roman « René Leys », sous la forme d’un journal, en créant un univers fantastique.
Au cœur de ce roman, deux personnages se distinguent :
Le narrateur, un diplômate français, sans nom ni fonction précise, est résident à Pékin et nourrit une passion pour la découverte de la vie intime du palais Imperial. Celui-ci toutefois est interdit d’accès a tout étranger et pour y pénétrer il faut parler chinois. Notre diplomate cherche donc un professeur et trouve René Leys.
René Leys est un jeune homme de dix-huit ans, fils d’un commerçant veuf belge établi à Pékin. Il se révèle supérieurement intelligent, maitrisant plusieurs langues, dont le chinois comme sa langue maternelle.
Le narrateur et le héros se font face comme dans un jeu de miroirs.
Le premier, orienté par sa passion pour les secrets du Palais Imperial et par des allusions stimule l’imagination de l’autre, le tout jeune René Leys. Celui-ci est ainsi encouragé à raconter ses aventures réellement vécues et rapporte ses expériences à son auditeur.
Ainsi se développe cette histoire passionnante pendant un an au grand plaisir des deux hommes et du lecteur. René Leys s’exerce au ruses des déguisements, découvre le pouvoir de l’argent pour ouvrir des portes, le maniement des fonctions politiques, et enfin tombe dans le piège d’un amour interdit.
Des évènements politiques et de révolution finiront par bouleverser de fond en comble l'environnement mettant fin à cette belle histoire.
A ce point, il est préférable de laisser la surprise de la fin au lecteur, qui conclura la lecture de ce livre hors norme.

My review in English
"René Leys" is a novel by the French writer Victor Segalen, written in 1911 and published in 1922 after the author's death. The story takes place in Beijing, China, at the beginning of the 20th century, at a time when foreigners generally did not have access to the Imperial Palace.
The novel tells the story of two main characters: the narrator, a French diplomat with no name or specific role, and René Leys, an eighteen-year-old Belgian young man raised in Beijing by his merchant father. The narrator is fascinated by the secrets of the Imperial Palace and wishes to enter this forbidden place. To do so, he needs someone who speaks Chinese and can teach him the language. This is how he meets René Leys, who not only masters Chinese but also other languages.
The two men develop a relationship where the narrator, guided by his passion for the mysteries of the Palace, provides René Leys with keywords that stimulate his imagination. René Leys then turns these words into adventures that he reports back to the narrator. This dynamic creates a close connection between them, where the teacher's curiosity is satisfied by the stories of his student, and René Leys explores the complex world of relationships, politics, and love through his tales.
However, the story is abruptly interrupted by political and revolutionary events that shake China and disrupt its environment. Social and political changes bring an end to this period of shared fascination and exploration. The ending of the novel is left open for the reader to draw their own conclusions about the fate of the characters.
"René Leys" stands out for its unusual narrative structure and its exploration of themes such as personal exploration, self-discovery through imagination, as well as the encounter between cultures and languages. The novel also offers a perspective on the imperial China of the time and the tensions between Western and Eastern cultures.

[Justin Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

My edition of this book, an old 'Quartet Encounters' (they specialized in Euro lit that wasn't published in the U.S. or U.K., and many of their titles are now published by NYRB), features a blurb from Publishers Weekly on how the novel "probes the frustrations of man's inability to grasp the unknown." But I must disrespectfully disagree, because if the book was that, I would have been bored stupid, and also not able to concentrate, because quotes from every important philosopher since Kant would have constantly been passing through my head, to the effect that we can grasp the unknown just fine provided we don't assume to begin with that the unknown can't be grasped.

Thankfully, RL is much less than a meditation on epistemological agony and the deep, deep profundities of the abyss: it is a story about the way Europeans look at and think about The Mystical Orient, or, in this case, China. Now, I'm very sensitive to issues surrounding Yellow Fever. I have a friend who's dated east Asian women, and he knows men who openly say that they would never date a non-Asian woman because they fantasize about the Orient and traditional gender roles and submissive little Asian women with tiny feet. That makes me uncomfortable because my wife happens to come from a Korean family. Luckily my wife's about as submissive as a lioness, so I don't feel too guilty. But the point is, I'm predisposed to read this book as a kind of satire on the narrator, and men (and women) like him, who are so obsessed with the Mysteries and Inscrutability of Orientals that they can't see the blitheringly obvious: that most people from China/Japan/Korea etc are just like most people from everywhere else, i.e., stupid, violent, arrogant, hidebound and greedy as heck.

Taken as such a satire, the book is excellent: the narrator's mind, such as it is, is on full display in his style, and though Segalen is supposed to have written the book to prove that you can write a novel without a plot, he's only half-succeeded. Nothing much happens to the narrator, it's true, but the plot is just kind of outsourced onto his friend, Rene Leys, and the nation of China. Plenty happens to both of them.

As a philosophical allegory of epistemological uncertainties, however, the book stinks. I prefer to think that was the furthest thing from Segalen's mind.

[Chris Cangiano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating meditation on fact, fiction and storytelling. The narrator, Frenchman living in China in the early 20th Century, just prior to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, is obsessed with breaching the secrecy of Imperial City. On the edge of despair he meets Rene Leys, the 18 year old son of a Belgian grocer, also living Peking. Leys becomes the narrator's Chinese language tutor and gradually shares his private life as a member of the Regent's inner circle and a member of the Emperor's secret police. Stories weave upon stories - are they true or imagined and does it even matter? Highly recommended; especially for fans of meta-fiction.

[Victoria]

Pierre Ryckmans, whom I admire more day by day as I read his essays collected as The Hall of Uselessness, took his pen name of Simon Leys from the title character of this book, and one wondered why, and who Victor Segalen is.

Rene Leys is a well-wrought, innovative, and consistently compelling novel about the way China can capture a westerner's imagination, a certain kind of westerner, open to the culture and history of the ancient kingdom, and with a touch of romance to the soul.

The novel immerses its readers in the world –- and it is truly a world of its own -- of early 20th-century "Pei-King" at the end of the imperial rule, arriving at a surprising and somewhat disconcerting denouement. It's impossible to say much more about the plot without saying too much; at least in part it's a sort of mystery.

The translation by J. A. Underwood is effortless and attractive, and you should not read either of the two prefaces, by the translator and by Ian Buruma, in advance, or the book will not be able to operate as it was designed to –- go directly to the novel itself.

Rene Leys has been reissued in a beautiful new NY Books edition, so well designed and of such quality materials that, after so many novels on near-newsprint, it's a small separate pleasure. But not on the scale of the work itself –- highly recommended, and the internet will provide useful and enjoyable images, including diagrams of the Beijing imperial palace at the time.

[Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

Không hẳn là truyện viết không hấp dẫn, nhưng đọc không thực sự bị lôi cuốn và đắm chìm. Đọc hết rồi vẫn có cảm giác nửa thật nửa hư, không biết cả câu chuyện vừa đọc là sự thật mà Rene Leys đã trải qua, hay tất cả rốt cuộc đều chỉ là những tưởng tượng của anh theo lời nói được Segalen dẫn dắt. Cảm giác bị xỏ mũi dẫn đi suốt cả câu chuyện và rồi cuối cùng vẫn không nhận được câu trả lời.

Ít ra thì đọc cũng có thêm đôi chút hiểu biết về thời kỳ cuối của triều đình nhà Thanh trước cuộc cách mạng Tân Hợi, cũng như về kiến trúc và đời sống sinh hoạt tại nơi Kinh đô đó.

[Marcel Côté · Rating 4 out of 5]

The former boy-toy of the Emperor rises to be head of the Secret Police that guards the security of the throne — or is it all the inflamed fantasy of a grocer's son with ambitions far beyond his means? Towards the end the narrator, who has the same name as the author, takes a private moment to inspect every inch of the deceased youth's body and remark on its athleticism and beauty. An elegant trifle, perfect for what it is (a Victorian-era chamber piece with the unabashed intent to exotify), its author saw his own life cut short by a mysterious death.

[Huy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Đọc tới những trang cuối cùng mới thấy rằng nó rất là thú vị.

[Stephen Durrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victor Segalen has in the last decade or so come into vogue as a theorist of cultural diversity, albeit a complex and problematic one. This is his best known novel and stands with his collection of poetry, Stèles, and his essay "Exoticism" as his most important works. The basis for the novel seems to have been Victor Segalen's time in China, which began in 1911, and his relationship there to a strange young man, Maurice Roy, whom Segalen took on as his language instructor. In the novel, the narrator is a man named "Victor" and Rene Leys is the name of a young European linguistic genius he takes on to learn Chinese. As the relationship between the older Victor and Rene develops, the latter begins to weave tales of his supposed access to the Forbidden City and, indeed, the very body of the Empress Dowager. These tales are provoked, at least in part, by Victor's obsession with the mysterious, inaccessible center of the Chinese world. The relationship between the two and the way each feeds the imaginative needs of the other is fascinating. But it goes beyond this, with the message ultimately haunting any of us who have ever become infatuated with a "cultural other."

[Jack Kelley]

shall i ever know how much of him came from me?

[Garrett Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so damn gossipy, I love it lol.

[Etienne Mahieux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une bonne partie de l'oeuvre de Victor Segalen est posthume, et c'est le cas de "René Leys", un roman qui se fonde sur un véritable épisode de la vie de l'auteur : sa rencontre à Pékin, lors des dernières années du céleste empire avec un jeune homme, Maurice Roy, qui prétendait avoir accès au coeur même de la Cité interdite. Maurice Roy est devenu René Leys dans ce roman qui se présente comme le journal d'un narrateur qui s'appelle Victor Segalen... mais qui n'est pas tout à fait Victor Segalen, puisqu'il ne partage pas la même date de naissance que l'auteur. Les prétentions de Maurice Roy relevaient de la mythomanie, et l'on dirait que Segalen (l'écrivain) conjure sa propre fascination pour cet affabulateur génial en organisant lui aussi son roman, comme ce qu'on n'appelait pas encore une autofiction, sur le mode de la mystification.
"René Leys" s'ancre dans l'histoire et la géographie réelles de la Pékin impériale ; la fin du roman coïncide avec la chute définitive de l'empire, où le récit attribue un rôle crucial au personnage éponyme (ou plutôt, où le personnage éponyme s'attribue lui-même un rôle crucial). La réalité vérifiable sert donc de pierre de touche à la fiction romanesque qui se tisse à partir des échanges des deux personnages.
Le ton du roman m'a surpris de la part de Segalen, dont jusqu'ici je connaissais surtout les poèmes. Dès le départ il fait une grande place à une ironie assez explicite ; le narrateur Segalen apparaît comme un curieux à la fois hanté par l'espace qui lui est interdit et qu'il cherche à découvrir, mais sa fascination pour une réalité qui lui est profondément étrangère (cela précisément que Segalen nommait "exotisme") se double d'une distance sarcastique vis-à-vis des autres personnages qui, comme lui, semblent avoir un pied des deux côtés de la civilisation. Le narrateur condescend même à des jeux de mots placés après points de suspension, ce qui si l'on en croit Umberto Eco est le stigmate même du pseudo-écrivain qui n'assume pas son propre style... sauf que le roman pourrait bien être ironique au carré.
Les prétentions de plus en plus exorbitantes de René Leys semblent confirmées par les observations du narrateur et par les aventures où son jeune ami l'entraîne. Tout semble exact, tout semble prouvé, et cependant tout ce que raconte le jeune homme est de plus en plus exorbitant, dès lors que s'y joue le destin de l'une des plus anciennes nations du globe. Au point que le narrateur finit par douter. Si Maurice Roy était un imposteur, René Leys l'est-il ? Magnifiquement, le roman ne propose aucune réponse définitive, et se fait lui-même aussi labyrinthique que la ville que les personnages explorent ; mais affleure cette hypothèse : que les récits de Leys aient été fondamentalement causés par la curiosité du narrateur, que le jeune homme n'ait jamais raconté que ce que Segalen-personnage voulait entendre, et qu'en somme le narrateur soit à la fois responsable du destin de son ami et l'auteur véritable, malgré lui, de ce dont il ne prétend être que le témoin.
C'est ainsi que si Victor Segalen, écrivain, ne s'intéressait paraît-il que partiellement aux grandes tentatives modernes de son époque, et que si ses positions politiques, fort peu colonialistes en même temps que conservatrices, lui faisaient ressentir une grande sympathie pour le pouvoir impérial chinois, du moins dans sa théorie mystique puisque les dernières années de la dynastie furent peu glorieuses, le roman qu'il en tire est d'une suffocante modernité, qui fait de lui le cousin de Kafka (encore totalement ignoré des Français) et de Borges (qui était collégien au moment de la rédaction de "René Leys"). Si le ton ironique du roman préserve en partie le lecteur de la fascination même qu'il raconte (et je n'arrive pas à déterminer si c'est un bien), son architecture est une merveille.

[Victor Legault · Rating 4 out of 5]

– Pei-King, « capitale du Nord» ! Ça n'est pas le nom officiel. La préfecture « administrative » s'appelle toujours sur les papiers: Chouen-Tefou.

– C'est exact.

– Quand les gens des Provinces parlent de se rendre «à Pei-King », qu'est-ce qu'ils disent?

– C'est vrai. Ils disent seulement qu'ils vont à la Capitale. Ils n'ajoutent jamais qu'il s'agit de la « Capitale du Nord ».

– Alors, d'où vient le nom de Pei-King? Où est-il écrit?

Je n'en sais rien. Pour la première fois, depuis plus d'une année, je me demande si le nom de la ville que j'habite (plus et mieux que nul de ses habitants, que j'essaie de posséder, de dominer autant et plus que l'Empereur lui-même), si cette ville et son nom détiennent une existence solide, foncière, autre que légendaire et historique!

Il me rassure:

– Les deux caractères «Pei-King» sont inscrits, quelque part, dans la ville.

– Où donc?

– Dans la Ville « Intérieure », sous la route qui mène du Peï-t'ang au Pei-t'a...

– Oh! j'y suis passé...

– Très souvent. Mais la première fois, avec moi. C'est moi qui vous ai montré la route. Vous n'y avez rien vu d'extraordinaire ?

– Rien.

(Pourtant! Je m'en souviens maintenant: les écarts incompréhensibles de son cheval... Je dois donc lui avouer :)

– Si! Les écarts incompréhensibles de votre cheval...

– Vous n'avez pas remarqué... (il hésite et il sourit) que cela sonnait creux? Non? C'est bien là. C'est pourtant à cet endroit que les deux caractères « Capitale du Nord », Pei-King, sont inscrits. [...]

J'entends! Je me vois sourire! un « souterrain » n'est plus qu'un tunnel manqué sans voie ferrée, depuis I'usage abusif qu'en ont fait nos romanciers romantiques et surtout nos ingénieurs. Ici, sous la large capitale plate, tout ce qui mord un peu la profondeur est inattendu et plein de trouble.

Et son étonnante habileté à faire cabrer son cheval, cette mystique bête issue tout droit d'une apocalypse mongole avec pedigree improvisé aux courses à l'Européenne de Tientsin-Bank & Co! – ce cheval me mordant la figure et s'en prenant, avec la divination que les poètes et les théosophes ont prêtée faute de mieux à cet animal obtus! – ce cheval, enfin, se cabrant avec cet à-propos sur ce terrain qui sonnait vraiment creux! Je me souviens de la scène: cela sonnait creux. C'est ensuite qu'il [René Leys] m'a conduit à travers l'extraordinaire promenade révélatrice. Il est vraiment curieux que je m'en souvienne à ce point: le premier jour où je l'ai retrouvé hors de chez moi et de chez lui, où je l'ai véritablement trouvé, cela sonnait creux!

[Lukáš Palán · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bom dia, literární rodino.

Tahle knížka je o Pečinku, což je město v Číně, kde vynalezli pečínku. Uprostřed tohodle města je Zakázaný město, kam se chce dostat náš hrdina. Co je uvnitř? Santa Claus? Pečinky zdarma? Gejša čokoláda? Rum zdarma? Kdo ví.

Celá kniha teda pojednává o tom, že náš hrdina chce dovnitř, což je trochu stejná zápletka jako u nás v ložnici, tam je taky zakázaný město a můj angličák většinou jezdí jen sem a tam. Jenže o to tady nejde. Tenhle hrdina se spřátelí s mladým učitelem René Lejsem, který tam prech chodí do rachoty a po večerech se mění na René Lejeme se. Detektivní pátrání se po chvilce přesune do těžce francouzské roviny, kdy si jeden říká "tak jsou to kámoši, nebo tady cítím nějaké čokovoko tendence?" Naštěstí na žádné kuličky od Lindt nedojde, takže to byl asi jen nějaký můj dojem. Kniha ovšem začne dost stagnovat a nějaký sex by jí jedině prospěl. To, že je tam asi dvacet konkubín a nepřečteme si ani o jednom bukkake je politováníhodné. Vždyť kvůli tomu přece knihy čteme a to snad mluvím za všechny!

Takže nakonec 6/10.

[Lâm Nguyễn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Câu chuyện kể của một người Pháp đến Bắc Kinh vào năm 1911, năm cuối cùng của triều đại Mãn Thanh. Tuy nhiên, Segalen không quan tâm nhiều đến hoạt động chính trị của nhà cách mạng Tôn Trung Sơn, mà tập trung vào chủ yếu những góc khuất bên trong Tử Cấm Thành, nơi anh mong mỏi được vào và khám phá từng ngóc ngách ở đó. Song việc vào bên trong quả thực là không hề dễ dàng, anh tiếp cận bằng nhiều cách, và thông qua việc học ngôn ngữ bản địa, ông đã có được những thông tin/câu chuyện bí mật phía bên trong tử cấm thành qua 2 người thầy của mình.

Mặc dù toàn bộ câu chuyện có rất ít những hoạt động của René Leys, nhưng nó vẫn lôi cuốn chúng người đọc một phần nào dó ở những câu chuyện mà người viết lại ghi nhận lại từ những vị gia sư ngôn ngữ của mình. Nó cũng cho thấy một bức tranh với những nét chấm phá nho nhỏ tại Bắc Kinh vào những năm đầu thé kỷ 20.

Song dầu gì thì quyển sách này cũng khá nhạt với mình.

[Lance Grabmiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lacking the haunting, Rimbaud-like poetics of his "Équipée", this is the more straightforward tale of Victor Segalen's life in Peking during the Revolution of 1911. The older Segalen is taken in by the strange and increasingly fantastic stories of his young Belgian tutor (Rene Leys). In his longing to know the Forbidden Palace and Leys' adventures within, the older man believes everything, until the 2000 year-old Imperial Dynasties of China come crumbling down and the young Rene Leys lies dead. Still a rather thrillingly well turned out story but it does feel a bit like the "orientalist" school Segalen despised.

[Castorp · Rating 2 out of 5]

unfinished....
It is not like me to not finish a book, but sorry René Leyes, it´s back to the library for you., I give up.
What could have been an enchanting story about a man dreaming of a forbidden, mysterious city was exceedingly boring and tiresome to read. Choppy, one short paragraph after the next.
The book seems to have all the ingredients that should intrigue me and yet I cannot stand the way it is written. It seems as if it was written on a dare or something, or by accident. I don´t know. Maybe next time.

[Vojtěch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trochu soudobá wikipedie poměrů v Pekingu kolem roku 1911, ve které jsem se upřímně ztrácel (moje chyba!).
Na druhou stranu oportunistický deníkový vypravěč chtějící se dostat do Zakázaného města, který se ztratil taky (jeho chyba!) - ve svém příteli Reném Lejskovi, z jehož fabulací šílel jako groupie, aby nakonec zjistil, že jeho belgicko-čínská hvězda končí jako všechny rockové stars.

[Kath Leco C · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,8 🌟, no le doy las 5 estrellas porque me costó tomar ritmo al inicio. Sin embargo, desde la página 70 que comienza a ser intrigante y te transporta a la China que describe el autor. Lo recomiendo, una novela que vale la pena tanto por sus personajes como por sus descripciones.

[Ely · Rating 2 out of 5]

School read
To be completely honest, i didn’t care about anything that happened in this book, i just had to read it so I’m thankful for the relatively short chapters.
I did like the writing style tho.

I think this book is a travel guide disguised in a poor plot.

[Daniel Polansky]

A narcissistic writer in pre-revolution Peking is enchanted by the dubious claims of a youthful fixer. A charming and thoughtful rumination on the limitations of genuine cultural exchange, objective truth. I dug it.

[Joe Trieu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Một câu chuyện đáng đọc cho những thời gian nhàn nhã. Chẳng cần phải có bài học gì sâu sắc, đơn giản xem và thấy vui khi khép lại cuốn sách. Ồ cũng đáng tiền mua để học hí hoạ để hiểu hơn bối cảnh xã hội Mãn Thanh thời mạt vận.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool and cute book that mostly seems to be about a European guy misunderstanding china a lot. Segalen seems like an interesting fella and I'm going to read more of his work.

[Cường Nguyễn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nội dung tưởng tượng rời rạc, mông lung. Đọc đến cuối vẫn còn lú. :((

[Ngoc Them · Rating 3 out of 5]

Đọc khá chán.

[Michael Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

segalen has amazing narrative control, slightly tilting this novel to its protopostmodern conclusion.
(he is also a great poet.)

[Alejandro Koppmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un collar de sutilezas al que no logré darle la vuelta y encontrarle el broche.

[Trinh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bản dịch cảm giác câu văn chưa được trau chuốt lắm, nhưng nội dung thì cũng có cái hay, giúp mình biết thêm về Trung Quốc giai đoạn chuyển giao ở thời đại phong kiến cuối cùng.

[Peter Crofts · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the recent Wesleyan University edition of Steles, which, for me, is certainly one of the most fascinating texts of early French modern poetry, I immediately got ahold of Rene Leys. Leys is a fairly well known piece of French literature which has developed something of a cult following as one of the forgotten masterpieces of early 20th century writing. The atmosphere and the general sense of incompleteness that pervades the text has been likened to Kafka. I suppose I should have paid note to the comparison as I'm one of those (somewhat embarrassed) people that respects Kafka's aesthetics but finds him about as enjoyable as stale bread. I'd say much the same for Leys. I suppose he's a writer's writer. Steles is distant and elusive but also haunting. Leys, at least for me, is simply elusive...actually it's not really so much elusive as boring.

[Petra Martincová · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in Czech translation and I'm not sure if the translation was good. The narrative sounds spasmodic, and it's probably also a shame that the book wasn't translated a hundred years ago (at the time when it was published), because by being written in contemporary language it lacks the exoticism that the diary entries of a Frenchman trying to infiltrate the Chinese imperial court in 1911 should have. But otherwise it's interesting and authentic - the curiosity and desire of Europeans to penetrate the Forbidden City/world is telling. It's also nice that the reader doesn't know until the very end whether Rene is making it all up or actually experiencing it, or even whether Victor is making Rene up:-D

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Westerner in Peking searches for the mystery at the center of the Forbidden City in this captivating tale of spiritual adventure. The young Belgian René Leys, who claims to be aware of strange happenings in the Imperial Palace, such as love affairs, family disputes, and conspiracies that jeopardize the empire's very existence, is taken on by him as a Chinese tutor. However, whether he is telling the truth or playing tricks, the enigmatic and endearing René gives his ever-more-astonished disciple a glimpse of "an essential palace built upon the most magnificent foundations."