Robert Hans van Gulik

[nnyhav]

Robert Hans van Gulik (髙羅佩) (August 9, 1910, Zutphen - September 24, 1967, The Hague) was a highly educated orientalist, diplomat, musician (of the guqin) and writer, best known for the Judge Dee mysteries, the protagonist of which he borrowed from the 18th century Chinese detective novel Dee Goong An.

So says wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_van_Gulik), but his role in resuscitating the genre is softpedalled; first translating forgotten works from Chinese into English, he apparently wrote and translated between Chinese, Japanese and English (and Dutch I presume, not to mention compiling an English-Blackfoot dictionary). Jan Mbali brought him up otherthread (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/general-chat/3082-does-books-mean-fiction-2.html#post8139), but having had him recommended despite genre not being my bag, the backstory compels reconsideration. So I'm opening a thread on a writer who's a mystery to me, looking for clues from y'all.

[saliotthomas]

I read the Haunted monastery long ago and keep a good memory of it.I always meant to read others and your thread put me back on tracks.I ordered the Morning of the monkey and The celebrated case of judge Dee.
But i'm afraid won't bring any light on the mysterious man.

[Eric]

As far as I can see by Googling in Dutch, although van Gulik was Dutch, and was born, educated, and died in the Netherlands, he never wrote anything in Dutch, nor have any of his 16 Judge Dee series of detective novels ever been translated into that language. Strange but, I think, true. Apart from those novels, his main claim to fame is as an orientalist, lexicographer and diplomat.

[Jan Mbali]

I have his "Chinese Nail Murders" or some such title on my shelves somewhere and have happily read it several time over the years. Also another, which I will look for. He has a clean modern style, laced with wry humour, and his Judge Dee is humane but within the bounds of the society of the time. Likewise his treatment of caste and class - realistic without any glorifying - it is the air they breathed in. Like all well-crafted simplicity, the Judge Dee series only works because of the profound knowledge of the society the characters inhabit.