Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

"The Wallet of Kai Lung was a thing made deliberately, in hard material and completely successful. It was meant to produce a particular effect of humour by the use of a foreign convention, the Chinese convention, in the English tongue. It was meant to produce a certain effect of philosophy and at the same time it was meant to produce a certain completed interest of fiction, of relation, of a short epic. It did all these things. . . . It is one of the tests of excellent work that such work is economic, that is, that there is nothing redundant in order or in vocabulary, and at the same time nothing elliptic--in the full sense of that word: that is, no sentence in which so much is omitted that the reader is left puzzled. That is the quality you get in really good statuary--in Houdon, for instance, or in that triumph the archaic Archer in the Louvre. The Wallet of Kai Lung satisfied all these conditions." --Hilaire Belloc

This lively and amusing set of stories, constructed as a series of letters dealing with the oddities and eccentricities of the West, are purportedly by Kong Ho, a Chinese man visiting early 20th century London. These letters, addressed to his homeland, refer to the Westerners in London as barbarians and reinterpret many elements of modern life (such as the motor car and the piano) with the wit, wisdom and wry sense of humor that suffuses the best of Bramah's Oriental works.

The complete short story casebook of the blind rival of Sherlock Holmes
In the pages of the influential Strand Magazine, there was a time when Ernest Bramah's stories of crime and detection, featuring the blind detective Max Carrados, appeared alongside those about the world's most renowned fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, and received equal critical acclaim. George Orwell considered the Max Carrados stories to be among the finest detective fiction published since the genre's creation by Edgar Allan Poe. The first Carrados stories appeared in 1914 as the Great War erupted and although they have not endured in the public imagination to the same degree that Holmes and Watson have, they were phenomenally popular and occasionally out-sold Conan Doyle's stories in book form. In common with Holmes and his Dr. Watson, wealthy and urbane Carrados operated with his own indispensible partner, the slightly shady Mr. Carlyle, and was further assisted by his manservant Parkinson and his secretary Mr. Greatorex. His blindness, caused by an accident, made Carrados very distinctive, and from his base at 'The Turrets, ' Richmond, London, he relied solely on his heightened powers of sensory perception to solve the mysteries which come his way. This Leonaur Original collects all twenty six of the Max Carrados short stories into a satisfying volume with all the ingredients of period detective fiction at its very finest. A treasure-trove of enjoyment that will be welcomed by all aficionados of the Golden Age of Crime and Detective fiction.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

A new collection of 'Kai Lung' stories by Ernest Bramah, including four previously unpublished stories. Related by Kai Lung, an itinerant story-teller, these stories, set in an Ancient China that never was, entertain with their wonderful use of language, and readers will frequently find their 'gravity displaced' by a particularly apt turn of phrase. This collection of eleven stories includes four previously unpublished stories. Of the remaining stories, six were published in 'Punch' and in a very limited edition colection, 'Kai Lung: Six', and the seventh has only appeared once before, in 'The Specimen Case'.

Max Carrados is a fictional blind detective in a series of mystery stories and books by Ernest Bramah, beginning in 1914. The Max Carrados stories appeared alongside Sherlock Holmes in the Strand Magazine, in which they often had top billing, and frequently outsold his eminent contemporary at the time, even if they failed to achieve the longevity of Holmes.

Max Carrados and his usual accomplice, Mr. Carlyle, are introduced in the first story, "The Coin of Dionysius." Carlyle is a private investigator, running a private inquiry agency concerned mainly with divorce and defalcation. He is directed to Wynn Carrados for an expert opinion on a tetradrachm of Dionysius the Elder of Sicily which he believes may be a forgery. At their meeting, the blind Carrados immediately recognises Carlyle from his voice as his former schoolfriend, Louis Calling. Carlyle then recognizes him in turn as Max Wynn.

Max explains that he was made financially independent by a rich American cousin who left him a fortune on condition that he adopt the surname Carrados. He was blinded some twelve years before the first story as a result of an incident while out horse-riding. Carlyle, a former solicitor, was struck off for his supposed involvement with the falsifying of a Trust Account. After this scandal, he changed his name and set up the inquiry agency.

Carrados enjoys revealing his explanations of mysteries through powers of perception, which ought to be at the disposal of any sighted person, but which in his case are heightened in positive compensation for his visual impairment. Given the somewhat outlandish idea that a blind man could be a detective, Bramah took pains to compare his hero's achievements to those of real life blind people such as John Fielding the Bow Street Magistrate, of whom it was said he could identify 3,000 thieves by their voices, and Helen Keller.