In combination with their compelling personalities, you’ll also fall in love with them even if you know you shouldn’t. Their characters alone make “Tai-Pan” worth reading, building suspense around what each will do next, and what bridges they are willing to cross into the realm of moral ambiguity. As for Tyler, his commitment to his family and passion for doing right by his children, no matter the personal cost or indiscretion he must go to, is simply jaw-dropping and unnerving.

For Dirk, it’s his unwavering love for one of his many wives, May-May, and the impeccable standards he holds for his son from his first marriage, Culum. Each is also jockeying to secure influence with the Chinese traders and emissaries but, most of all, to be the richest man in Asia.īoth Dirk and Tyler are profoundly egotistical, conniving, blunt and power-hungry men yet, in their own ways, each has unique qualities that exhibit their humanity. The two companies are engaged in a struggle to outsmart the other in order to gain favor with the inept and opium-addicted Governor-General William Longstaff. His company is in fierce competition with the second-best firm, Brock & Sons, led by his arch-rival, Tyler Brock.

Dirk is the “Tai-Pan,” or leader of the Noble House, the richest trading company in Asia.

The narrative follows the thrilling business adventures and political intrigue of a Scottish merchant, scrapper, opium smuggler and general charmer known as Dirk Straun. Set in 1841, the novel begins at an inflection point in the First Opium War between Great Britain and Imperial China, when the British had just secured the land that would become Hong Kong. Needless to say, Clavell produced yet another epic historical fiction adventure packed with exciting characters, harrowing themes, astonishing detail and a narrative you’ll contemplate long after you finish. After finishing “ Shōgun ,” I was eager to see how well author James Clavell would keep the momentum in “Tai-Pan” (1966), the second novel in his “Asian Saga” series.

Tai pan by james clavell