Chinese Dreams in Romantic England - by Edward Weech (Hardcover)

About the Book

A polymath and participant in the 'first wave' of British Romanticism, Manning was one of the first Englishmen to study Chinese language and culture. His extraordinary story, told for the first time, transforms our understanding of Romanticism and the cultural exchange between Britain and Asia.

Book Synopsis

A brilliant polymath and part of the 'first wave' of British Romanticism, Thomas Manning was one of the first Englishmen to study Chinese language and culture. Like famous friends including Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lamb, Manning was inspired by the French Revolution and had ambitious plans for making a better world. While his contemporaries turned to the poetic imagination and the English countryside, Manning looked further afield - to China, one of the world's most ancient and sophisticated civilizations. His travels included the salons of Napoleonic Paris, a period as a prisoner of war, a dramatic shipwreck and, disguised as a Buddhist pilgrim, a trek through the Himalayas to Tibet, where he met the Dalai Lama. Manning's extraordinary story sheds a new light on English Romanticism.

From the Back Cover

'A thrilling account of Wordsworth and Coleridge's contemporary Thomas Manning, a remarkable radical ... He well deserves to be celebrated.' Claire Tomalin, author of The Young H.G. Wells: Changing the World

'Thomas Manning did many remarkable things and knew many remarkable people. He deserves a biography. Such a book will hold particular interest for those who care about the British Romantics, British culture in the early nineteenth century, or British "orientalism".' Michael Ferber, author of Romanticism: A very short introduction

'Edward Weech's eloquent, illuminating study of Thomas Manning is a landmark event in Romantic studies and the history of ideas. With rigor and aplomb, the book resurrects a stunningly polymathic contemporary of Coleridge and Lamb, a man who thrived as a linguist, explorer, mathematician, and wit.' Eric G. Wilson, author of Dream-Child: A life of Charles Lamb

A brilliant polymath and part of the 'first wave' of British Romanticism, Thomas Manning was one of the first Englishmen to study Chinese language and culture. Like famous friends including Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lamb, Manning was inspired by the French Revolution and had ambitious plans for making a better world.

While his contemporaries turned to the poetic imagination and the English countryside, Manning looked further afield - to China, one of the world's most ancient and sophisticated civilizations. His travels included the salons of Napoleonic Paris, a period as a prisoner of war, a dramatic shipwreck, and, disguised as a Buddhist pilgrim, a trek through the Himalayas to Tibet, where he met the Dalai Lama. After his death, his outward-looking vision was eclipsed by the English-rural poetic vision of Romanticism, and he was forgotten.

Manning's extraordinary story, here told in full for the first time using recently discovered archival sources, sheds a new light on English Romanticism and the course of cultural exchange between Britain and Asia at the dawn of the nineteenth century.

Review Quotes

China Books Review's best biography of 2023, as recommended by Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking.

'Thomas Manning did many remarkable things and knew many remarkable people. He deserves a biography. Such a book will hold particular interest for those who care about the British Romantics, British culture in the early nineteenth century, or British "orientalism".'
Michael Ferber, author of Romanticism: A very short introduction

'I had heard of Thomas Manning, but by name only and knew little about his life and travels, therefore the work has proved to be extremely interesting and educational. What an exciting 'boy's own' adventure Manning appears to have had.'
Sarah Murden, All Things Georgian

'Edward Weech has successfully rescued one of Britain's earliest Sinologues from obscurity and for that he should be thanked. That he has written such a highly readable and engaging biography of the man is really the cream on the coffee that makes Chinese Dreams in Romantic England an important study of early Sinology.'
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China

'This is a timely story to tell (needless to say), and Weech's well-written and highly enjoyable study of a figure who was drawn to 'strange things' deserves an audience among those interested in Britain and empire and Sino-British relations as well as students of Romantic literary culture.'
The Charles Lamb Bulletin

About the Author

Edward Weech is Librarian at the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.