Ti-Ping Tiem-Kwoh, The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, Including A Narrative of the Author's Personal Adventures.
London: London Day & Son, 1866. First edition. Hardcover. An account of Augustus F. Lindley (1840 -1873), British officer, writer and adventurer, who fought for the Taiping insurgents in their rebellion against the Manchu dynasty, one of the largest and bloodiest civil wars in history. The Taiping Rebellion (1850-64), was instigated by Hong Xiuquan and his followers, whose goal was to create a "Heavenly Kingdom" in China, with Christianity as the official religion. Lindley was a Royal Navy officer stationed in Hong Kong who resigned his commission in 1860 to work for a Taiping general as an artillery instructor. He also became a spokesperson for the cause, courting Western support and procuring weapons and supplies. His wife, Maria, the daughter of the Portuguese consul at Macau, served in the rebellion as a sniper, and was killed in an ambush. Lindley remained in China until the fall of the Heavenly Kingdom in 1864. Two years later he wrote this work, the only detailed account written of the Taiping Rebellion from the rebels' perspective.
Two volumes, royal 8vo: Vol I, xvii, (iii), 424pp; Vol II: vii, (i), 425-842, complete. Folding color frontispiece, 20 chromolithographs, 9 wood engravings, two folding maps. Original publisher's maroon pictorial gilt cloth covers with blind stamped borders, gilt illustrations at upper covers. An ex-library copy, with bookplates, library stamps to plates only on versos. Archivally restored, with the original spines laid down. OCLC: 3467844. Good + condition. Item #20127
Price: $850.00