The Secret History of The Mongols & Other Works

In this unforgettable book, Arthur Waley brings together a number of his articles, poems and translations. Included in this collection are pieces on the eighth-century Chinese poet Ts'en Shën and the great Chinese prose writer, Han Yü, as well as some of Waley's original poems and stories. But the most compelling is 'The Secret History of the Mongols', consisting of long extracts from a thirteenth-century Chinese saga. Written in vivid, elegant prose, it recounts fantastic tales of epic battles; of betrayal and love; of tyrants and prisoners. Suffused with symbolism and folklore, it is a masterpiece of storytelling which will appeal to the scholar and the ordinary reader alike.

Arthur Waley was a distinguished authority on Chinese and Japanese language and literature. He translated many poems and novels from these languages. He was honoured many times for his work by the Chinese and received the Queen's medal for poetry in 1953. His work includes Chinese Poems, Japanese Poetry, The Tale of Genji and Monkey, the translation of a sixteenth-century Chinese novel, which was turned into a major BBC television series.