Indiscreet Letters From Peking: Letters Written by One of the Besieged From the Boxer Uprising to the Sack of the City

by B.L. Putnam Weale

Besieged by the Boxers by one of the besieged
For those interested in the siege of the legations at Peking in 1900, this remarkable book has many advantages. Its text is taken from letters written and despatched as the events unfolded and together they offer a substantial account that reveals the progress of the crisis to its inevitable conflagration. The atmosphere of unease within the city is palpable to the reader up to the point the writer introduces us to 'the Society of the Harmonious Fist'-the fearsome Boxers. Weale then describes the siege in some detail, virtually on a day by day basis, with all its privations and with graphic accounts of fierce combat with the attacking Chinese forces. Finally, with the arrival of the relief column and foreign troops, the author tells of the sack of the city which is an aspect of the Siege of the Peking legations often absent from other accounts. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Bertram Lenox Simpson (1877-1930), who wrote under the pseudonym Putnam Weale was a novelist and a journalist. He was one of the well-known figures who worked for the Customs in China. His works include: Indiscreet Letters from Peking (1906), The Fight for the Republic in China (1917), Wang the Ninth: The Story of a Chinese Boy (1920), The Port of Fragrance (1930), Manchu and Muscovite and The Re-Shaping of the Far East.

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A product of its times, for historical reference only.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very prosaic account of the Boxer Uprising, which followed from the economic and cultural rape of a protectionist China by imperial powers after the two Opium Wars. The author was formerly a British customs official at a Chinese port and was later assimilated into the Chinese Government and assassinated for reasons unknown. Doubt has been cast, however, upon the historical accuracy of this account and the author's relationship to the events; nevertheless, this is a compelling and insightful account. The author was an intellectual and quite canny: he was many, many decades ahead of his time.