The House of Exile
by Nora Waln
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Description
Twenty-five-year old Nora Waln, daughter of a prominent Pennsylvania Quaker family, sailed for China, by herself, in 1920. By train, boat & sledge, she traveled from Peking to Hopei, & passed through the World Gate to the HOUSE OF EXILE, the home of the Lins, who adopted her as their "daughter by affection." The house--a compound in which several generations of this aristocratic extended family lived--had been founded by an ancestor exiled from Canton by Kublai Khan. In six hundred years, no show more foreigner had entered it. In her best selling memoir, first published in 1933, Waln describes life in the country; within the foreign colony; amongst the intellectuals; within the political factions. She shows us China on the brink of change. Previously unpublished material from a sequel written after World War II & suppressed is also included. Illustrations; photographs. show lessTags
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anonymous user Similar story of an American living amongst a Chinese clan family in a time of upheaval, in this case the Communist takeover twenty years later.
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Trinity College Booklist (1951): Class Five, Travel and Geography
52 works; 2 members
Best Books of 1926-1935
403 works; 10 members
Publisher's Weekly NON-Fiction list - 1912 - 1975
486 works; 4 members
Author Information
5+ Works 221 Members
As a freelance correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and The Saturday Evening Post, Nora Waln covered the rise of Chinese Communism, the Pacific Theater in World War II, The Nuremberg Trials, the Korean War, and postwar Japan. She died in Spain in 1965 at age 70.
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1933
- People/Characters
- Chiang Kai-shek
- Important places
- China; Japan
- First words
- Late in the eighteenth and early in the nineteenth centure, Lin Yan-ken selected merchandise for J.S. Waln.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)An hour later, Shun-ko came to tell me that her husband had secured permission from the Family Council for me to submit my manuscript.
- Original language
- English
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- Members
- 112
- Popularity
- 288,888
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, German
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 19
