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The Devil Wives of Li Fong
No man is happier than Li Fong -- until he discovers his lovely wives are really serpent-demons! Long and long ago, before the foreign devils came, old China was a land of ancient culture and strange magic. There, Li Fong, a student of apothecary, seems the luckiest of men. By what has to be happy chance, he has been led to take two charming and quite wealthy ladies as his wives.
How could he know that his loving and beloved Mei Ling and Meilan are really spirit-demons? Or that the great snake that comes to his aid is really Mei Ling in her natural form?
But the wicked Taoist magician Chang Lu knows the truth and plots evil for Li Fong and his wives. Nor can the magic of Mei Ling prevail, though she struggles to protect her husband and gain true humanity for herself.
In the end, she can only summon the beautiful and terrible dragons to her aid!
How could he know that his loving and beloved Mei Ling and Meilan are really spirit-demons? Or that the great snake that comes to his aid is really Mei Ling in her natural form?
But the wicked Taoist magician Chang Lu knows the truth and plots evil for Li Fong and his wives. Nor can the magic of Mei Ling prevail, though she struggles to protect her husband and gain true humanity for herself.
In the end, she can only summon the beautiful and terrible dragons to her aid!
216 pages, Paperback
First published November 12, 1979
About the author
E. Hoffmann Price
215 books19 followersOriginally intending to be a career soldier, Price graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point; he served in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, and with the American military in Mexico and the Philippines. He was a champion fencer and boxer, an amateur Orientalist, and a student of the Arabic language; science-fiction author Jack Williamson, in his 1984 autobiography Wonder's Child, called E. Hoffmann Price a "real live soldier of fortune."
In his literary career, Hoffmann Price produced fiction for a wide range of publications, from Argosy to Terror Tales, from Speed Detective to Spicy Mystery Stories. Yet he was most readily identified as a Weird Tales writer, one of the group who wrote regularly for editor Farnsworth Wright, a group that included Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. Price published 24 solo stories in "the Unique Magazine" between 1925 and 1950, plus three collaborations with Otis Adelbert Kline, and his works with Lovecraft.
In his literary career, Hoffmann Price produced fiction for a wide range of publications, from Argosy to Terror Tales, from Speed Detective to Spicy Mystery Stories. Yet he was most readily identified as a Weird Tales writer, one of the group who wrote regularly for editor Farnsworth Wright, a group that included Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. Price published 24 solo stories in "the Unique Magazine" between 1925 and 1950, plus three collaborations with Otis Adelbert Kline, and his works with Lovecraft.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 22, 2012
The Devil Wives of Li Fong by E. Hoffman Price, Del Rey(Ballantine Books), 1979.
E. Hoffman Price (1898-1988) was an old-school pulp fiction writer ("fictioneer" was his term for it) who, long after the pulp era ended, renewed his career by becoming a novelist in the emerging sf/fantasy field of the 1970's and remained active right up until his death. He had a great and abiding interest in Asian mythology and religion, and both sides of that coin are evident in The Devil Wives of Li Fong.
The premise is that two female snake-spirits take on mortal form in a quest to become fully human. Why they do this and why they would want to be human in the first place is closely tied to Buddhist beliefs. In short, being human is a step or two above spirit/devil-serpent on the great wheel of Death and Rebirth, a sort of spiritual boost on the way to eventual Transcendence. The two snake-women, Mei Ling and Meilan, become wealthy by discovering an abandoned villa with a buried treasure, and soon after meet an apothecary's apprentice named Li Fong, who they think is an agreeable young man and they decide to marry him, again as a further step in their quest to become fully human. Li Fong, charmed by their beauty and not exactly reluctant to part ways with his current master, agrees. Things are going swimmingly, until…
Enter Chang Lu and Tai Ching, Taoist priests and complete scoundrels. With the rise of Buddhist influence, the Taoist priests were expelled from the Emperor's court and Taoism fell into something of disrepute, so much so that the figure of the evil Taoist magician was something of a stock figure in old Chinese stories. But just because they're corrupt doesn't mean they don't control powerful magic. Worse, Chang Lu and Tai Ching know the snake-women's secret, and more to the point, they know about the treasure. The fact that the women are really snakes, and in theory, a danger to Li Fong, hardly enters their minds, which are too full of schemes on how to acquire the treasure, with which they plan to bribe officials of the Emperor's court and buy their way back into favor. To make matters even worse, they manipulate the local Buddhist abbot, Shen Hui, into lending them his power. The abbot's intentions are pure, and they are to save Li Fong from the snake-women's influence. After many moves and counter-moves, the Taoists and the abbot succeed in kidnapping Mei Ling.
Fortunately for Mei Ling—and totally unknown to the abbot—all the kidnappers are not working toward the same goal. The abbot's sole motivation (other than a little pride) is Li Fong's salvation and for this he sees no alternative but to remove Mei Ling(as one of the devil-wives points out, the Buddhist abbot in his sincere fantaticsm was far more dangerous than the Taoists), while Chang Lu and Tai Ching just want the money. The priests, for their own selfish reasons, manage to prevent the abbot from destroying Mei Ling long enough to attempt extorting ransom, which in turn gives Li Fong and Meilan time to attempt a daring rescue.
Some people may find elements of this story somewhat familiar, at least in its broad strokes. That's because, at heart, it's a retelling of an old Chinese legend, "Madame White Snake," which is also about two serpent-women attempting to become human (see Ching Se (aka "White Snake, Green Snake") for another modern retelling) I say that solely to point out this book's lineage, since I think understanding this antecedent can enhance the reader's appreciate for this story, which is both poignant and a lot of fun at the same time. Not that there aren't flaws. A big one to me was the editing, or seemingly lack of it, at times. I only found one or two actual typos, but there were places where the language gave me trouble. For instance, while it was mentioned at points in the story that there are a lot of different dialects among the people of China and some native speakers would sound odd even to other native speakers, it still made no sense that, for instance, a ferryboat captain would be speaking in a very broad pidgin accent on one page and yet would have perfect diction two pages later. That's the kind of thing an editor should have caught, if the author didn't. Minor quibble, yes, but it did detract from the story at points.
So do Mei Ling and Meilan become fully human? Does Li Fong get crushed and eaten by one of his snake-wives as the abbot predicts? Do the Taoists get the money? Does the abbot ever get a clue? Sorry, no spoilers here. I will say it's not an entirely happy ending. But, all in all, maybe the right one. And any reader with a desire for a little old-school storytelling could do a lot worse.
E. Hoffman Price (1898-1988) was an old-school pulp fiction writer ("fictioneer" was his term for it) who, long after the pulp era ended, renewed his career by becoming a novelist in the emerging sf/fantasy field of the 1970's and remained active right up until his death. He had a great and abiding interest in Asian mythology and religion, and both sides of that coin are evident in The Devil Wives of Li Fong.
The premise is that two female snake-spirits take on mortal form in a quest to become fully human. Why they do this and why they would want to be human in the first place is closely tied to Buddhist beliefs. In short, being human is a step or two above spirit/devil-serpent on the great wheel of Death and Rebirth, a sort of spiritual boost on the way to eventual Transcendence. The two snake-women, Mei Ling and Meilan, become wealthy by discovering an abandoned villa with a buried treasure, and soon after meet an apothecary's apprentice named Li Fong, who they think is an agreeable young man and they decide to marry him, again as a further step in their quest to become fully human. Li Fong, charmed by their beauty and not exactly reluctant to part ways with his current master, agrees. Things are going swimmingly, until…
Enter Chang Lu and Tai Ching, Taoist priests and complete scoundrels. With the rise of Buddhist influence, the Taoist priests were expelled from the Emperor's court and Taoism fell into something of disrepute, so much so that the figure of the evil Taoist magician was something of a stock figure in old Chinese stories. But just because they're corrupt doesn't mean they don't control powerful magic. Worse, Chang Lu and Tai Ching know the snake-women's secret, and more to the point, they know about the treasure. The fact that the women are really snakes, and in theory, a danger to Li Fong, hardly enters their minds, which are too full of schemes on how to acquire the treasure, with which they plan to bribe officials of the Emperor's court and buy their way back into favor. To make matters even worse, they manipulate the local Buddhist abbot, Shen Hui, into lending them his power. The abbot's intentions are pure, and they are to save Li Fong from the snake-women's influence. After many moves and counter-moves, the Taoists and the abbot succeed in kidnapping Mei Ling.
Fortunately for Mei Ling—and totally unknown to the abbot—all the kidnappers are not working toward the same goal. The abbot's sole motivation (other than a little pride) is Li Fong's salvation and for this he sees no alternative but to remove Mei Ling(as one of the devil-wives points out, the Buddhist abbot in his sincere fantaticsm was far more dangerous than the Taoists), while Chang Lu and Tai Ching just want the money. The priests, for their own selfish reasons, manage to prevent the abbot from destroying Mei Ling long enough to attempt extorting ransom, which in turn gives Li Fong and Meilan time to attempt a daring rescue.
Some people may find elements of this story somewhat familiar, at least in its broad strokes. That's because, at heart, it's a retelling of an old Chinese legend, "Madame White Snake," which is also about two serpent-women attempting to become human (see Ching Se (aka "White Snake, Green Snake") for another modern retelling) I say that solely to point out this book's lineage, since I think understanding this antecedent can enhance the reader's appreciate for this story, which is both poignant and a lot of fun at the same time. Not that there aren't flaws. A big one to me was the editing, or seemingly lack of it, at times. I only found one or two actual typos, but there were places where the language gave me trouble. For instance, while it was mentioned at points in the story that there are a lot of different dialects among the people of China and some native speakers would sound odd even to other native speakers, it still made no sense that, for instance, a ferryboat captain would be speaking in a very broad pidgin accent on one page and yet would have perfect diction two pages later. That's the kind of thing an editor should have caught, if the author didn't. Minor quibble, yes, but it did detract from the story at points.
So do Mei Ling and Meilan become fully human? Does Li Fong get crushed and eaten by one of his snake-wives as the abbot predicts? Do the Taoists get the money? Does the abbot ever get a clue? Sorry, no spoilers here. I will say it's not an entirely happy ending. But, all in all, maybe the right one. And any reader with a desire for a little old-school storytelling could do a lot worse.
October 14, 2016
Mei Ling and Meilan are "devils" in the Asian sense: beings on the same spiritual continuum as human beings, but much further from enlightenment. Their desire to achieve true humanity in the next life if not this one shapes the entire story in interesting ways, not just in terms of avoiding death and destruction, but also in fulfilling the roles of wife and concubine.
August 15, 2020
E. Hoffman Price is one of those names I've known for a long time. A pulp writer of some fame, he's also famous for being the only pulp writer to meet Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith (the great 'Triumvirate' of Weird Tales writers) in person. I haven't read any of Price's work before, even though I've read quite a few stories from Weird Tales, so when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at the chance.
The Devil-Wives of Li Fong was a mixed bag for me. While I thought it was well-written, it was pretty slow. I was surprised because pulp writers are renown for action and purple prose. It's not that there weren't moments of action, but nowhere near what I was expecting.
Good points. There was plenty of character development. Li Fong starts as a nineteen-year-old virgin, while Mei Ling and Meilan are snake-people who have earned enough karma over thousands of years and multiple reincarnations to finally appear close to human. Everything the two do helps or hinders their quest to become more solidly human, and prevent sliding back to their snake forms.
The story is based on one of China's Four Great Folktales, the "Legend of the White Snake". Price being a Buddhist and an amateur Orientalist, brought a lot to the story that I wasn't aware of — culturally speaking. I finally know why Chinese coins often have holes in the middle.
Bad points. Too much time is spent dwelling on Li Fong's sexual awakening. Price does write these sections with sensitivity, so they weren't like the soft porn that seems to happen in so many modern books (that I skip over to get back to the story). Still I would have preferred quick segues away from this stuff.
There was also something about the characters that made them almost feel like side characters on side quests away from the main action of the "real story". The villains weren't very villainous, and the heroes not too heroic. Possibly this was because of the source material that the story was based on. I don't know, but the final tally was okay, but not great. Three-and-a-half stars out of five.
The Devil-Wives of Li Fong was a mixed bag for me. While I thought it was well-written, it was pretty slow. I was surprised because pulp writers are renown for action and purple prose. It's not that there weren't moments of action, but nowhere near what I was expecting.
Good points. There was plenty of character development. Li Fong starts as a nineteen-year-old virgin, while Mei Ling and Meilan are snake-people who have earned enough karma over thousands of years and multiple reincarnations to finally appear close to human. Everything the two do helps or hinders their quest to become more solidly human, and prevent sliding back to their snake forms.
The story is based on one of China's Four Great Folktales, the "Legend of the White Snake". Price being a Buddhist and an amateur Orientalist, brought a lot to the story that I wasn't aware of — culturally speaking. I finally know why Chinese coins often have holes in the middle.
Bad points. Too much time is spent dwelling on Li Fong's sexual awakening. Price does write these sections with sensitivity, so they weren't like the soft porn that seems to happen in so many modern books (that I skip over to get back to the story). Still I would have preferred quick segues away from this stuff.
There was also something about the characters that made them almost feel like side characters on side quests away from the main action of the "real story". The villains weren't very villainous, and the heroes not too heroic. Possibly this was because of the source material that the story was based on. I don't know, but the final tally was okay, but not great. Three-and-a-half stars out of five.
December 3, 2015
Although the lurid cover and title suggest otherwise, this really is a very good piece of fantasy writing. I bought this book new in 1979 For $1.95 and have held onto it all these years...even after 3 moves and numerous weedings out of the bookshelf. An oldie but a goodie.
Okay so the young apothecary accidentally married two spirit demons. But in China, spirit demons aren't necessarily a bad thing.
Okay so the young apothecary accidentally married two spirit demons. But in China, spirit demons aren't necessarily a bad thing.
March 6, 2016
First, I picked this one up because the art work caught my eye. Second, while I had never read the author before I had heard of him and wanted give some of his work a try. Unfortunately, this title was not for me. There is almost no action whatsoever. Sadly, this one was a bust for me.
December 13, 2023
imo too long. the extensive explication of the magic mei ling does did not help me understand it. the sex stuff was drawn out and a little unnecessary especially since the scheming of the taoist villains started to come to the forefront more to the point where i would've preferred the author just cut straight to the action. calling laborers "coolies" was unnecessary and also didn't make much sense given the historical context. mei ling and meilan were fun characters. i preferred the original xu xian's loser energy to the slightly more competent li fong though. he should've been arrested at least once smh
July 10, 2024
Part of the Ballentine Adult Fantasy line of the 70s and 80s, this seems emblematic of the line as a whole. A well told tale tied to real world mythology (in this case, Chinese) but not slavishly so, interesting characters, strong traditional fantasy elements. The last 30 pages feel padded out, but otherwise, I enjoyed this tale of a man with a serpent-demon wife and a serpent-demon mistress (they're sisters) and the troubles they run into.
January 31, 2026
Definitely old school style and of its day. It didn’t age well in my opinion and followed the tell don’t show rule.
April 28, 2012
Sometimes you look at a title and cover and just know a book is going to be bad and just read it to see if you're pleasantly surprised. Well, this one was a mixed bag. I liked the Chinese culture with mix of Buddhism and Taoism. However, it was definitely predictable, which made it plod along even more. The author should also be more careful with dialog, as he had the stilted traditional language interspersed with modern Western language. Referring to someone as "awfully sweet", anyone?
Overall, not a bad read, but not a high recommendation.
Overall, not a bad read, but not a high recommendation.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews