James Clavell's Noble House Books

"Noble House" is a sequel to the incomparable Tai-pan. While "Tai-pan" is essentially a novel of the founding of Hong Kong as a British territory, "Noble House" is a sequel set in the 1960s. The Cold War is at its peak, Asia is beginning to flex its muscles, and the world is wracked by conflict.

"Noble House" specifically deals with the conflict between the Noble House ("Struans") which was founded by Dirk Struan in "Tai-pan" and "Rothwell-Gornt" which is a successor to Brock & Sons, the arch foe of the Noble House for two centuries, and headed by Quillan Gornt. The head of Noble House, Ian Dunross the Tai-pan, has sworn a blood oath of unforgiving conflict against Gornt, and Gornt returns the hatred with interest.

This is a complex novel that is interwoven with numerous vivid characters including an American industrialist, a Soviet spy, a Chinese Communist mole, and of course the Tai-pan and Gornt. The story is one of business conflict combined with international politics and espionage. The story has a Cold War flavor to it, and is great fun. Adding to the fun are oblique references to events and characters in "King Rat" and "Shogun," also masterpieces by Mr. Clavell.

No European knows Asia like author Clavell does, and his insights into Asian culture are enlightening and downright fascinating, and these permeate the novel. While Noble House is a complicated story, it is told in a reasonable straightforward manner that keeps the reader's interest. This is a very fine novel that rewards the reader.

Highly recommended.

James Clavell was a WONDERFUL Writer (yes, with a capital W) and NOBLE HOUSE was a gift he left to us!

Through his eyes we visit Hong Kong in the 1970's. Clavell, like a virtuoso connaisseur of the human condition he is, manages to interweave a multitude of stories into a continuous carpet of a city living fast, taking risks, winning and loosing but never giving up.
Heads of huge conglomerates on the verge of foundering - yet never letting go of their rival's throat; dirt-poor Chinese maids striking it rich by a sudden turn of their joss; photographer-Wo and his trophy collection; drug-running smugglers asking for favors-you-can't-refuse; cold war spy networks riddled with double and triple agents; an American stock-market runner trying his hand in raiding Hong Kong companies; ladies getting "pillowed", men getting wooed, fortunes made and lost in the 10 days these all take place. Will the Noble House survive?

To quote Balzac, behind every great fortune lies crime. To prove him right, Noble House is but a thinly veiled reference to Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd, a real company. Anticlimactically for an historic British company operating in China, it is nowadays incorporated in Bermuda - and trying to forget its opium-running past (like so many City of London companies respectable today yet founded on drugs and dead natives).

All these stories are presented masterfully, without ever loosing the reader's interest or dropping the ball of building tension. There were less than a dozen writers who could do this - starting with Homer.

My copy was so worn I had to replace it.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

PS:
There is a 1988 TV mini series based on this book - of comparable merit. (The mini-series are currently available only on VHS). The major casting was excellent (having suave Pierce Brosnan and beastly John Rhys-Davies go head-to-head was a stroke of genius). Although it run for 6 hours total, it barely scraped the surface of the complex story-lines. Truly beautiful production.
Nevertheless, my advice is to first read the book and only THEN watch the TV version.

I intended to read this book a long time before I did. I've always been fascinated by the slippery world of the market players. It's a lot more fun reading about it than being on the other end of it, and I have done both.

A covertly ambitious businessman and his female assistant arrive in China with secret designs on wresting financial power from the existing controller of Hong Kong business, Ian Dunross, who's company (s) of Struan's holds the title to Noble House, a Chinese term for "Biggest Guy" I guess. (it's a boys club - no girls allowed) Dunross has maintained a tenuous hold on the title by sheer strength of his wits because he is developing financial problems, which he is trying to keep under wraps while he stabilizes his game plan, plagued by all sorts of intrigue and undermovements, made noteable by one of his arch enemies and rivals in business, who has inside information and sees this as his golden opportunity to move in for the kill. There are many other sub-plots tying all of it together, and the Chinese names are difficult to maintain a grip on. I found myself going back every now and then just to keep track of them. But that, too, was part of the storyline puzzle, since the police were having the same difficulty.

The story is extremely well written, showing the seamy side of floating Chinese culture existing comfortably beside high rises and billionaires; with politics of the Viet Nam era driving everything. The high-stakes players were openly hostile to one another, laying their gargantuan egos on the table along with the challenge to one another, in a winner-take-all - except the American played by a third set of rules which is all that should be divulged by a review, leaving the ending to the winds.

It was everything I wanted in a read of the subject.

An all time great read. I loved it! I am already planning on reading it a 3rd time.

Noble House and Shogun are tied for the top spot in my personal list of top ten books I have read in my life.

Just buy it and read it, you will enjoy it!

The characters in this book are just so real. This book, like the others, isn't packed with incredible action and suspense but it's an amazing story all the same and a very enjoyable read.

James Clavell was an excellent writer ... I'm always glad to read (and re-read) his material. Just finished Noble House. The way the author ties, weaves and overlaps centuries of stories and people and families is simply astounding.

Highly recommended!

James Clavell was a WONDERFUL Writer (yes, with a capital W) and NOBLE HOUSE was a gift he left to us!

Through his eyes we visit Hong Kong in the 1970's. Clavell, like a virtuoso connaisseur of the human condition he is, manages to interweave a multitude of stories into a continuous carpet of a city living fast, taking risks, winning and loosing but never giving up.
Heads of huge conglomerates on the verge of foundering - yet never letting go of their rival's throat; dirt-poor Chinese maids striking it rich by a sudden turn of their joss; photographer-Wo and his trophy collection; drug-running smugglers asking for favors-you-can't-refuse; cold war spy networks riddled with double and triple agents; an American stock-market runner trying his hand in raiding Hong Kong companies; ladies getting "pillowed", men getting wooed, fortunes made and lost in the 10 days these all take place. Will the Noble House survive?

To quote Balzac, behind every great fortune lies crime. To prove him right, Noble House is but a thinly veiled reference to Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd, a real company. Anticlimactically for an historic British company operating in China, it is nowadays incorporated in Bermuda - and trying to forget its opium-running past (like so many City of London companies respectable today yet founded on drugs and dead natives).

All these stories are presented masterfully, without ever loosing the reader's interest or dropping the ball of building tension. There were less than a dozen writers who could do this - starting with Homer.

My copy was so worn I had to replace it.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

PS:
There is a 1988 TV mini series based on this book - of comparable merit. (The mini-series used to be available only on VHS, but, as of March 2008, it is also available on a beautiful DVD edition). The major casting was excellent (having suave Pierce Brosnan and beastly John Rhys-Davies go head-to-head was a stroke of genius). Although it run for 6 hours total, it barely scraped the surface of the complex story-lines. Truly beautiful production.
Nevertheless, my advice is to first read the book and only THEN watch the TV version.

Like Clavell's other books, this is an adventure tale set in a culture that was unfamiliar to most Westerners when he wrote it. This time it is oil workers in the Middle East trying to escape the revolution in Iran, with the story told from both western and Iranian viewpoints. It was an entertaining read if not quite as good as King Rat or Shogun.

My order was shipped within the timeframe, but the seller should have been more informative regarding the status of the order rather than me having to constantly trying to fine out the status myself.