Their Ships Were Broken

New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.. Near Fine in Very Good dj. (c.1938). First American Edition. Hardcover. [clean, solid copy with minimal shelfwear; jacket has some very shallow chipping along the top edge, a couple of tiny tears and associated creasing at bottom edge of front panel] A novel set against the background of the international opium trade in the 1830s. The author "pictures life in the native quarters, aboard the fast-sailing opium clippers, in the English and American business houses in Canton where the young men were hopeful Anthony Adverses, and the women were scarce -- none of them allowed nearer than the Portuguese port of Macao. Eccentric missionaries, epicurean merchants, sea captains, and supercargoes, and one or two women of rich personality, are presented with all the vividness of the unusual and exciting world in which they figure." Originally published in England in 1937; one British reviewer noted that "in the old records of the East India Company and the archives of the early American traders, [the author] has discovered a vein of the authentic stuff of which good yarns are spun, and she has spun one of the best," further lauding the book for "breathing the very spirit of adventure and romance, [and being written] in a style remarkable for its mastery of detail." .