Condition: Near Fine, appears unread. This is an extraordinary example of biographical detective work by Hugh Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. Sir Edmund Backhouse (1873-1944) was a gifted Sinologist, long resident in China; but under Trevor-Roper's steady gaze, he is revealed as a pathological deceiver and pornographer who, despite gentlemanly manners and extraordinary persuasiveness, was in the words of the DNB, "litigious, profligate, and a gross snob." Remarkably, as Trevor-Roper notes, Backhouse seems to have been "almost magically protected from all the effects of his own actions....sailing calmly through the stormiest seas" while "his successive victims sank spluttering in his wake." (292-93). The high esteem in which he had been held by students and scholars of Chinese history collapsed upon publication of this book by Hugh Trevor-Roper. The pinnacle of Backhouse's achievements, the publication of "China under the Empress Dowager" in 1910, was found to be based on a forgery, one of many forgeries as it transpires, perpetuated by Backhouse, the ramifications of which continue to this day. As a direct consequence of Backhouse's forgery of a diary supposedly by a high Manchu court official, and subsequent book publications based upon the diary, popular history regards the Dowager Empress as an evil, scheming, and manipulative woman, who went as far as having her own son murdered to maintain her grip on the regency of China. The "Hermit of Peking" gives a much fuller account of the life of Backhouse, and fills in more detail about the numerous frauds that Backhouse tried pull off. Not only was Bland as co-author of "China under the Empress Dowager" a victim (Bland believed until his death that the diary could not have been a forgery) of Backhouse's fraudulent activities, but also G. Morrison, the renowned Times Correspondent. Even Oxford University and the British Government were taken in as HTR gleefully relates. It is amazing that Backhouse got away with what he did without the greater world being aware of it, but HTR shows the reader how he did so (Backhouse's victim's embarrassment was one reason). It is well written, and only in the final chapters does HTR delve into the literary pornography for which Backhouse is now famous for, and HTR does so with taste, sparing the reader the graphic details. Many histories of China have relied on the writings of Backhouse as a historical source and reference, thus perpetuating the popular myth of the Dowager Empress as a ruthless leader of her people. "The Hermit of Peking" is a stirring read, and despite its age, should be viewed as a companion to the much more recent "Dragon Lady" by Sterling Seagrave to flesh out one of the main characters of early 20th century Peking.
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