With the Allies to Pekin: A Tale of the Relief of the Legations

by G.A. Henty

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

302 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1904

About the author

George Alfred Henty, better known as G.A. Henty, began his storytelling career with his own children. After dinner, he would spend and hour or two in telling them a story that would continue the next day. Some stories took weeks! A friend was present one day and watched the spell-bound reaction of his children suggesting Henty write down his stories so others could enjoy them. He did. Henty wrote approximately 144 books in addition to stories for magazines and was known as "The Prince of Story-Tellers" and "The Boy's Own Historian." One of Mr. Henty's secretaries reported that he would quickly pace back and forth in his study dictating stories as fast as the secretary could record them.

Henty's stories revolve around fictional boy heroes during fascinating periods of history. His heroes are diligent, intelligent, and dedicated to their country and cause in the face, at times, of great peril... Henty's heroes fight wars, sail the seas, discover land, conquer evil empires, prospect for gold, and a host of other exciting adventures. Along the way, they meet famous personages... In short, Henty's heroes live through tumultuous historic eras meeting leaders of that time. Understanding the culture of the time period becomes second nature as well as comparing/contrasting the society of various cultures.

Reviews

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars & 4/10 hearts. I have a strong liking for books about sieges for some reason. There was some derogatory attitude towards Chinese, and mentions of taking your own life rather than be captured, but I really enjoyed this one for that reason. It was also humorous and very interesting. I loved the part of all the allied armies. I fell in love with the Japanese from this book. <33

A Favourite Quote: “The hard work falls to the Chinese. They are wonderfully patient, obedient, and hard–working, and expose themselves fearlessly everywhere. I am coming to have great respect for them. There is no giving way at all among them. They have lost everything they have in the world, but they show no signs of despondency. They take everything that comes as a matter of course, and sometimes, when I go among them when the fire is heavy, I hear them praying out aloud.”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “‘You know the old story, Father, of a Chinaman who excused defeat by saying: “Two men cannot be in one place; if one must come the other must go.”’
“His father laughed. ‘Well, I have no doubt it is something like that, Rex. When the Chinese saw that we were quite determined to get into Tientsin, our obstinacy and fixedness of purpose told upon them, and they began to say: “These people have made up their minds to come, therefore we had better go.”’”