Mr Ma and Son (33 page)

breach of promise:
Informally known as ‘heart balm’, a man’s promise of engagement to marry was considered a legally binding contract up to the early twentieth century. If he were to renege, he would be subject to litigation.

the old city of Welwyn:
Welwyn lies over a kilometre to the north of Welwyn Garden City and is more commonly referred to as old Welwyn.

Evening Star:
A local paper based in Ipswich, England began in 1885 as the
Star of the East
.

Ts’ao Ts’ao:
A warlord, military genius and poet of the Three Kingdoms Period, he was frequently depicted as a cunning and deceitful man in classical opera, a persona that was popularised in the
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
.

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First published in Chinese as
Er Ma
by
Fiction Monthly (Hsiao-shuo Yüeh-pao),
1929

This edition published by Penguin Group (Australia) in association with Penguin (Beijing) Ltd, 2013

Copyright © The Estate of Lao She, 1929

Translated from the Chinese by William Dolby

The moral right of the author has been asserted

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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Front cover image © Keystone Pictures/ZUMAPRESS.com; provided by Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives

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ISBN: 978-0-85797-564-5