Meny
Portrait image of Robert van Gulik Robert van Gulik with wife Shui Shih-fang 1946

Sample of authors

Gulik, Robert van

Robert Hans van Gulik was born in Zutphen, the Netherlands, and grew up in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the former Dutch East Indies, where his father served as a medical officer in the Dutch Army. Van Gulik’s father collected Chinese porcelain and passed his interest on to his son who taught himself Mandarin. Robert van Gulik was fascinated by Chinese history and culture, and he became an authority o...

Further reading

Literary figures

Dagobert Trostler

Gender: Male

A rich, and in posh circles highly regarded amateur criminologist and music-lover in the Vienna of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, often called Detective Dagobert in the short stories that author Balduin Groller (pseudonym for Adalbert Goldscheider) wrote about him. Dagobert Trostler is a trim middle-aged bon viveur and bachelor with a dark beard and hair (although thin on top), glowing dark eyes...

Further reading