From the time of Marco Polo’s trek across the Central Asian desert to the empire of the mighty Kahn, no other place on earth, not the languid South Pacific or even deepest, darkest Africa has
so challenged and enchanted the Western imagination as have the fabled lands of the East!
However soaked in blood its history and no matter how unsettling its social conditions and poverty, Asia has never lost its irresistible attraction or mystic. It has long been an inspiration
for Western novelists, so much so that more than 5000 novels have been set in Asia in the English language alone. Storied names like Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, Pearl S. Buck, George
Orwell, Graham Greene, E.M. Forster and many more have used their experiences in Asia as a vibrant backdrop for some of the world’s most famous works of literature.
In Romancing the East, best-selling author Jerry Hopkins combines his research and his own experiences as a longtime expatriate with an intimate knowledge of Asia and offers us a unique
perspective on the impact of Eastern culture in Western literature.
