Even without all the references to the ‘yellow menace’, the ‘downfall of the white race’, and other historically racist content I’d still probably go with a three. It’s a fun adventure/suspense story with likable heroes after a maniacal evil genius, it’s just unfortunate he’s described in the way that he is. The heroes make some dumb mistakes, and the plot has a narrow scope for such broad consequences, but I have to admit I’d like to see what happens next with the Doctor.

Sax Rohmer (real name Arthur Henry Ward) perhaps wanted to write something similar to Sherlock Holmes novels, a story with two heroes who are both fighting the evil. In this case we have Sir Denis Nayland Smith (a sort of well-wheeled government agent who inspires instant respect from everyone he meets) and his accidental helper, Dr Petrie who actually tells the story from his perspective. Nayland has just returned from Burma - all tanned and worried about a certain dangerous individual who is danger for the whole white race (!) and here is where things go funny. I cannot possibly imagine how was it a 100 years ago, but in a present time this sounds fairly ludicrous - back than, it served the purpose of creating "us against them" perspective, where good guys fight an obvious enemy who must be different, as to easily distinguish it from "our boys". It would actually work better if Rohmer created an antagonist who can easily hide in a crowd, instead of making every single Asian character instantly suspicious - but who am I to say, Rohmer became wealthy and successful with these novels and it just doesn't make sense to judge a 100 year old novel by our current standards.

It starts fairly well and the game of cat & mouse reminded me strangely on French detective novel "Fantomas" (written more or less at the same time as this one) but at certain point it became repetitive - chapter after chapter, our guys follow Asian characters into a dangerous, dimly lit places and opium dens, just to narrowly escape sure death by poison, etc, etc. Each time mad genius of Dr. Fu Manchu almost gets them, but than something (or somebody) helps them so we continue to more chapters of exactly same premises. Towards the end I even got a little bored, it might be that certain old novels (like this one, or "The Phantom of the Opera" from the same time) are just too old.

This is the first in a series of popular ‎Techno-thriller‎; ‎Spy fiction written before WWI. It’s a Sherlock Holmes-like story. It pits English gentlemen against an Oriental [sic], evil, genius committing acts of espionage, kidnapping and assassination in London for a shadowy Chinese political movement. (A surprisingly modern premise.) It’s a good early example of the techno-thriller/spy fiction genres, although a modern reader may find the style to be peculiar when compared to modern examples of the genres. However, the narration is period-perfect, better than can be found in contemporary historical fiction. It’s a real, if somewhat uncomfortable example of period fiction for readers interested in the popular culture of the early Windsor period of English history.

This book is more than 100-years old. It's original copy write is 1913. It was moderately long by modern standards. My copy was 308-pages. This story and others from the series are in the public domain. Free copies are available on Project Gutenberg, where I got my copy.

The author, [a:Sax Rohmer|90779|Sax Rohmer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1291542409p2/90779.jpg] wrote fourteen (14) Fu-Manchu series books between 1912 to 1959. Interestingly, despite its heavy far-eastern content, the author had never left Britain before writing the first three (3) books of the series. This book was initially serialized for magazine publication in 1912 and published as a novel in 1913. The first three books of the series include the protagonists in this one.

I’ve taken an interest in reading fiction from the first half of the 20th Century to see how differently folks thought versus now. These 100-year old stories are historically more interesting than contemporary historical fiction taking place in that period. They’re much more authentic. In particular, most writers of historical fiction can’t get into character. At heart, they are 21st century men and women. Their characters end-up being modern folks in period clothing and affecting the speech of the historical period. In this book, the author and his audience actually live in the first half of 20th century Britain. The story isn’t providing a 20th century period edu-tainment to a 21st century audience. The story is providing 20th century edu-tainment to a 20th century audience. The resulting narration is different from a modern story, but not so completely different as to be unrecognizable.

One of the things I look for in these old stories is the Values Dissonance. That’s when the morality of the characters and culture in a story written more than 100-years ago are different from the current morality. Racist fears of foreign cultures and sexual anxieties weren’t really too different 100-years ago. For example, this story is an example of Yellow Peril literature. A then current psycho-cultural, belief of a racial menace from the East similar to contemporary white supremacist sentiments.

Besides the Value dissonance, I look to find spelling differences, word changes, name changes, and differences in writing styles in these old books.

In this story I noted the period British spelling of the common word “clue” to be “clew”. The modern spelling is now universal. Also words change their meanings. The word "oriental" was commonly used in the story. Today, its considered derogatory, and is no longer used even to describe a broad range of traditional carpet types. Locations 100-years ago were not uniformly Romanized . Frequently I found far-east locations referenced in the story had disappeared from the modern map due to name changes. Names of common objects also fall out of use. A “brassie” was used as a weapon in the story. Only after a chapter of use did I receive enough clews [sic] to figure out it was an obsolete type of golf club that has since been replaced by the 3-iron. Also, many readers may find the vocabulary of these stories antique and challenging. (“Viridescence ” sent me to the dictionary.) I suspect part of the 20th Century edu-tainment value of these stories was a vocabulary lesson, something shunned in many modern stories. Finally, many of the then new and clever plot devices found here have over time have become tired tropes to a modern reader. Narrative style has also changed. The epistolary style is rarely used today, but was very popular 100 and more years ago.

Prose was very good. Dialog was better than descriptive prose. The dialog was in the vernacular of the British established middle and the Elite classes. In general, the dialog was too melodramatic by contemporary standards. For example, the description of the antagonist (Fu-Manchu):

” Dr. Fu-Manchu, whose tentacles were dacoity, thuggee, modes of death, secret and swift, which in the darkness plucked men from life and left no clew behind.”

This story was written for a popular audience in 1913. It’s been scrubbed of anything then British society might find objectionable. There are no profanities or vulgarities in the text. There is no sex. English gentleman apparently should regard “Oriental beauties” as forbidden fruit. There are oblique references to human trafficking. There was significant substance abuse. Alcohol was used in a medicinal capacity by the English gentlemen. The gentlemen smoked up a tobacco storm in their pipes and occasionally smoked cigarettes. However, the “eastern vices” of opium and hemp were in use by the underclasses and foreigners and to “rufie” the unwary.

Cannabis indica," I said—"Indian hemp. That is what you were drugged with. I have no doubt that now you experience a feeling of nausea and intense thirst, with aching in the muscles, particularly the deltoid. I think you must have taken at least fifteen grains."

That does not read like the effects of the Special Kush #1 found at my local marijuana dispensary.

Violence was not graphic. It consisted of edged-weapon, physical and firearms. The Asians used edged weapons, the whites firearms. There is a minimum of trauma and blood. The Asian and South Asian minions of Fu-Manchu got shot and fell over dead, without the modern complications of bleeding out. The body count was moderate. This could be considered a YA read, except for the racial and social subtext.

There is a limited number of characters. The influence of [a:Arthur Conan Doyle|2448|Arthur Conan Doyle|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1495008883p2/2448.jpg] is obvious upon the author. The protagonists are Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie. They are clearly Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Smith is the law man protagonist. He’s Sherlock with a “license to kill” from the Crown. He’s not as deductive as Sherlock, but he’s really lucky. Dr. Petrie is Dr. Watson. (He's a "Medical Man" too.) If you know that character, you don’t need to know any more. Oddly, I don’t recall him having a first name. Karamaneh is an early example of a femme fatale. Her name means “slave”. She’s the beautiful Arab Egyptian slave of Fu-Manchu, and Petrie’s unconsummated love interest. Fu-Manchu apparently doesn’t use her sexually himself, but does employ her as a honeypot for western gentlemen. The antagonist is Dr. Fu-Manchu. He’s an evil, well-funded, Chinese, super villain, genius. (He's a PhD, not a "Medical Man".) Imagine a Chinese, Osama bin Laden times ten terrorist. He’s employed by a shadowy Chinese political organization. He’s always a step and a half ahead of Smith, Petrie and Scotland Yard. His signature is to kill or incapacitate his foes in the most elaborate way possible. However, like Smith, he’s a “man of honor”. There are also numerous English gentlemen and their wives, along with Indian, Burmese, and “copper” redshirts.
Women, with the exception of Karamaneh, do not play a large part in the story.

The story is written in a semi-epistolary form. This is a very common style of writing for the period. Narrative cuts back and forth between Petrie’s first-person narration, and his journal entries. Action scenes are in Petrie’s first-person POV, while the journal artifice being used for exposition-type narration, certain reveals and jumping the story ahead. The serialization of the story is also apparent in the chapter structure and the story's pacing.

Plot has Smith returning to Blighty from Burma hot on the trail of Fu-Manchu. Fu-Manchu is tasked by a shadowy Chinese political organization to assassinate key British Empire Chinese policy makers adverse to their goals. He’s also to steal valuable British technology and kidnap notable western engineers for work in China. (This all sounds very modern, doesn’t it?) Smith and Petrie chase around London, having several adventures either to capture Fu-Manchu or foil his assassinations, kidnaps and thefts. Part of the edu-tainment is Fu-Manchu’s very elaborate methods. Like the Russians using polonium-210, a poisonous radioactive isotope rather than shoot, knife or blow-up a victim, Fu-Manchu would use a venomous insect or snake, biological or chemical poison. It’s part of the edutainment value of the story to learn how to kill using the venom of a hamadryad (King Cobra, but not the malt liquor ). Smith and Petrie survive capture and death several times only by pure luck. By turning Karamenah, Smith and Petrie foil almost all of Fu-Machu’s machinations, but they fail to capture him. He escapes to appear in another book.

As a thriller, a modern reader has seen this story many times. There are numerous plot holes, discontinuities and many pages of needless exposition that adversely affect the pacing. I was constantly annoyed that when “good guys” were captured by the bad guys, they were never relieved of their pocket knives, which they subsequently used to cut their bonds and escape. Also, there were too many assassinations, kidnappings, thefts and well-laid plans to capture. It was getting boring by page 250.

The anthropological whiteness of the story is obvious. The bad guys were Asians or South Asians, and the good guys Anglo-Saxon. There was a lot of The White Man’s Burden in the text. (There were several [a:Rudyard Kipling|6989|Rudyard Kipling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1183237590p2/6989.jpg] quotes in the story.) Petrie and Karamenah pined for each other, but East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet was quoted to fend off miscegenation. There are also no black characters. I got the feeling there were none in London in 1912?

This story was about what I expected. The prose, particularly the descriptions were interesting to read. I improved my vocabulary and learned a lot about the state of science and technology in the pre-WWI British Empire. I found Chinese theft of intellectual property to be a surprisingly modern plot device within the story. I did find the pacing to be slow, by modern standards. Unfortunately, in places I found the social commentary disturbing to my modern sensibilities. For example, at the stories end, Karamenah was repatriated back to Egypt. That was because it would not be proper for Petrie to have a relationship with an Arab women. (Realistically, her fate upon return to Egypt can't have been good.) In summary, this was an interesting read, if you have a historical interest in the late British Empire, but you may find it baffling and possibly offensive.

Readers interested in some background on this period of English history might try Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India and Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age . I’m undecided if I’ll read the second book in the Fu-Manchu series: The Devil Doctor .

Entertaining period adventure. Racism abounds including many references to the "yellow menace".

This was a fun read but, you have to be in an "old-serial-story" kind of mood. You can tell this was the kind of story that people knew what came before it and what would come after. It felt like a episode in a series. I like the old-timey descriptions and scenes. I would read more.

When it takes me 6 weeks to finish a 190-page book I actually like it becomes obvious what limited reading time I am currently having. Sigh....

Either way, this is the first of the Fu Manchu exploits and the closest Rohmer came to creating a Holmes pastiche:

Manic untidy pipe smoker as the hero? Check.
A loyal doctor and friend as the narrator of the story? Check
An antagonist who is a match to the detective with a large criminal network and well versed in science? Check again.

Later books lose these Holmesian qualities and in the very last books we even approach James Bond style territory but it was great to finally catch up with where it all began.

Chock full of pulpy goodness! I thoroughly enjoy Sax Rohmer's storytelling style, his brisk pacing, his descriptive and evocative language. Dr. Fu Manchu is a formidable and uncanny villain, the novel is filled with strange and curious incidents, well-wrought and exciting. A quick, enjoyable read.

Fu-Manchu, a dude so evil he has a mustache style named after him.

Read my full review at HorrorTalk.com.

Sherlock Holmes, but not quite as clever. Ok for a brief diversion, but more pulp than classic. The chronicler is even a doctor. In 21st century terms could be considered racist, probably also when it was written! Don't take it too seriously.

Some nice ideas and devices - chemical and biological weapons - for example.

The first Fu-Manchu novel, originally published in 1913 by Sax Rohmer (Arthur Henry Ward) does an excellent job of introducing readers to the “most diabolical evil genius of all time”. Published in the UK under the name, “The Mysterious Fu-Manchu”, the story is told from the first person perspective of Dr. Petrie who acts as a sort of Watson to the more adventuresome Nayland Smith, a colonial police commissioner in Burma who has been granted a roving commission that allows him to utilize any group that can help him in his mission. When this book was written the western world was in the midst of the “Yellow Peril” and thus a diabolical mastermind intent on subjugating the West was a well-received idea.

The book is filled with idealized adventure much as one would find in the pulps and it never lets up on the accelerator. I like the way Dr. Fu-Manchu scorns the use of guns or explosives in favor of thugs with knives, members of secret societies, or using "pythons and cobras ... fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli ... my black spiders" and other natural chemical weapons. Perilous adventure for Dr. Petrie and square-jawed Nayland Smith to be sure.

Many readers today are unable to cope with the racism inherent in such a book, but I can take it as it was written and consider the times in which it takes place. I may cringe now and again but there is always a poisonous spider or deadly mold trap coming to take my mind away.

I’ve been reading similar pulp-era books for years but lately have made a plan to introduce myself to a new character each year. Last year was The Shadow and this year it’s Dr. Fu-Manchu. It’s a great way to expand my universe. Based on this first novel, it’s going to be a good year.