SOURCE: "Kai Lung in America: The Critical Reception of Ernest Braman," in The American Book Collector, Vol. 9, No. 10, June, 1959, pp. 15-19.

In the following essay, White surveys Bramah's writings and laments the general lack of criticism on the author's works.

Almost sixty years ago Ernest Bramah wrote The Wallet of Kai Lung, in which Chinese ways of thinking and speaking were adapted to the English language: the most horrifying events told blandly, the most farcical situations described with a straight face, and the most evil characters tell the most transparent lies in the politest possible way, with aphorisms on every other page. For example: "It has been said … that there are few situations in life that cannot be honorably settled, and without loss of time, either by suicide, a bag of gold, or by thrusting a despised antagonist over the edge of a precipice on a dark night...