Miss Bianca in the Orient: 12/03/07

Miss Bianca in the Orient (1970) is the fifth book in the Miss Bianca books by Margery Sharp. Miss Bianca is taken the the "orient" by her boy and soon finds herself in the middle of a mystery.

Miss Bianca must save the life of a young court page who has somehow insulted the queen. He will be trampled to death under the feet of the royal elephants if Miss Bianca and Bernard can't find him first.

I enjoyed the mystery aspects of the novel. It's not clear until near the end if the boy really exists and the proposed method of execution is chilling. Unfortunately the book is so full of stereotypes and old colonial views of "the orient" to be difficult to read. There are times that the book borders on xenophobia.

Comments (1)

Comment #1: Wednesday, December, 5, 2007 at 01:21:35

Linda says:

Oh gawd, that's a blast from the past. When I read those I was quite young and thought they were really exciting books. There was something very chilling about the boy and the elephants, and waking the elephants up to what they were doing...

I have absolutely no recollection of the other points you make, but as a child I'd likely miss them anyway...but it sure did evoke some memories. :)

"The Rescuers" was the first film I ever saw in a cinema :)