Droll, elaborately polite, as wirkman says, and just plain hilarious, for me. Dipping into this book, especially when depressed, has given me many a needed laugh over the years. Thanks, Tuck Langland, for the long-lasting lifeline! I had to buy myself a new copy a few years ago. ( )

Although personally I like Bramah's Max Carrados stories about a blind detective, Bramah may be bet known for these stories set in a fictional version of traditional China, in which much of the humor derives from the elaborate and often elaborately humble language the characters use toward each other. Though Bramah was not, in fact, and did not pretend to be, an expert on Chinese culture, these stories do combine genuine Chinese elements --the villainous corrupt magistrate with his evil assistants, for example --with parodies of British life of the time. This book sets up a frame story in which the wandering storyteller Kai Lung, unjustly condemned by the wicked magistrate, prolongs his life by telling tales like Scherezade. However, the first tale explains the famous (and not in fact very ancient) "willow pattern" plate by a tale which is a parody of British trade-unionists (very unsympathetically depicted) are foiled in their strike by what amounts to mechanization. ( )

Droll stories of a fabulous ancient China. You know, the one with the occasional dragon. ( )