Noble House

Noble House
Author: James Clavell
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
Total Pages: 1370
Release: 1987
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0440164842

Under the eyes of the KGB, the CIA, and the People's Republic of China, British and American businessmen maneuver for control of Hong Kong's oldest trading house in a torrid atmosphere of easy money, smuggled guns, and natural disaster

Tai-Pan

Tai-Pan
Author: James Clavell
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Total Pages: 889
Release: 2018-09-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982537574

The sweeping epic novel of the founding of Hong Kong, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James Clavell “There can only be one Tai-Pan.” Dirk Struan rose from humble beginnings to build Struan & Company, also known as the Noble House, into the world’s largest Far East trading company. He is now the Tai-Pan—Supreme Leader—of all Tai-Pans in China. Along the way, however, he made a powerful enemy. Tyler Brock, Struan’s rival from their early opium-smuggling days, also heads a large trading fleet, second in size only to Struan’s. But it is not only silks and spices that drive their mutual companies’ wealth—the opium trade is still booming. War between England and China might be over, but the hostilities remain. Struan and Brock come to control much of England’s trade with China yet neither can control their desires or their hatred of each other. Over the years, their two families will cross paths, threatening to rip both apart, with reverberations that will echo across the generations. Struan must fight to save his company and his family, or risk seeing everything he has created destroyed at the hands of his sworn enemy. Ambition, political intrigue, and love and lust weave their way throughout the novel the New York Times called, “grand entertainment...packed with action...with blood and sin, treachery and conspiracy, sex and murder.” East and West come together in an opulent and intricately plotted narrative. A tour-de-force of historical fiction, rich in detail yet eminently readable, Tai-Pan will stay with you long after the final page.

Gai-Jin

Gai-Jin
Author: James Clavell
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Total Pages: 1589
Release: 2021-01-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1094188034

The dynamic epic novel of political upheaval and societal change in late 1800s Japan, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James Clavell This epic novel by master writer James Clavell, loosely based on the Namamugi Incident and Anglo-Satsuma War that took place in the late 1800s, is a richly researched, panoramic view of Japan’s budding relationship with the Western powers, its sweeping societal changes, and the political upheaval that followed. As Malcolm Struan, the son of Culum and Tess Struan, and a small band of Westerners travel down the Tōkaidō road, they are attacked by two Satsuma samurai, who mortally wound John Canterbury and seriously injure Malcolm, who then finds reprieve in the merchant village of Yokohama after a narrow escape facilitated by the unscathed Angelique. Angelique Richaud, Malcolm’s penniless but beautiful French companion, is thrown into a world of political intrigue, fierce devotion, unstable family dynamics, blackmail, and secrets as the trading houses battle for supremacy. With a cast of dynamic and fully recognized characters, Gai-Jin spins a tale of passionate love affairs, devastating loss, intense power struggles, and the fight to survive and thrive in a hostile new land that will leave readers longing for another foray into Clavell’s extraordinary Asian Saga.

Tai-Pan

Tai-Pan
Author: James Clavell
Publisher: New York : Dell Publishing Company
Total Pages: 740
Release: 1966
Genre: American fiction
ISBN: 9780440184621

Dirk Straun, a pirate, smuggler, and ruthless individual, finds glory beyond his dreams as the Tai-Pan, or supreme leader, of Hong Kong.

Shōgun

Shōgun
Author: James Clavell
Publisher: Turtleback Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1986
Genre: Adventure stories
ISBN: 9780613013284

After John Blackthorne shipwrecks in Japan, he makes himself useful to a feudal lord in a power struggle with another and becomes a samurai.

The Children’s Story

The Children’s Story
Author: James Clavell
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Total Pages: 83
Release: 2022-11-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982537663

“What does ‘allegiance’ mean?” the New Teacher asked, hand over her heart. In this classic and chilling tale about an elementary school classroom in post-war occupied America, James Clavell brings to light the vulnerability of children and the power educators have to shape and change young minds. Originally written in the Cold War era, Clavell’s extraordinary and enduringly relevant allegory on the impressionability of the human mind is still read in schools around the globe today, and is a call to every person to keep questioning and keep learning.

Samurai William

Samurai William
Author: Giles Milton
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2003-01-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0374706239

An eye-opening account of the first encounter between England and Japan, by the acclaimed author of Nathaniel's Nutmeg In 1611, the merchants of London's East India Company received a mysterious letter from Japan, written several years previously by a marooned English mariner named William Adams. Foreigners had been denied access to Japan for centuries, yet Adams had been living in this unknown land for years. He had risen to the highest levels in the ruling shogun's court, taken a Japanese name, and was now offering his services as adviser and interpreter. Seven adventurers were sent to Japan with orders to find and befriend Adams, in the belief that he held the key to exploiting the opulent riches of this forbidden land. Their arrival was to prove a momentous event in the history of Japan and the shogun suddenly found himself facing a stark choice: to expel the foreigners and continue with his policy of isolation, or to open his country to the world. For more than a decade the English, helped by Adams, were to attempt trade with the shogun, but confounded by a culture so different from their own, and hounded by scheming Jesuit monks and fearsome Dutch assassins, they found themselves in a desperate battle for their lives. Samurai William is the fascinating story of a clash of two cultures, and of the enormous impact one Westerner had on the opening of the East.

James Clavell

James Clavell
Author: Gina Macdonald
Publisher: Greenwood
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1996-06-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

This study analyzes all of Clavell's fiction: King Rat, Tai-Pan, Shogun, Noble House, Whirlwind, and Gai-Jin. Each chapter discusses one novel and is divided into sections on plot and structure, character development, themes, historical foundations, genre conventions, and alternative perspectives from which to read the novel. A biographical chapter illuminates the influence of Clavell's life experiences on his writing.