The small woman door Alan Burgess

Title : The Small woman
Author : Alan burgess
First published in : 1957 by Evans Brothers Ltd.

Biography of the writer :
I have looked everywhere in the library, in Eindhoven. But they (and I) couldn't find anything about Alan Burgess.

Time/setting :
The story begins with the end, then the story continued in London. It plays in China about1930/1950. The whole story takes 20/21 years.

Genre:
It is a roman. The story was real happened.

Main character :
Gladys Aylwards is an English woman. I don't know exactly her age, but when the story began I think she was about 20 years old.
She is a very strong woman. When she had something in her mind she maked it. If it was dangerous or not. You could see that on all her acts. What she started she ended good. With all the frightened things she had gone through she learned not to be frightened. Gladys followed her intuition. You could see it in the way she acted.
Gladys believed in God. She is a missionary. Very often Gladys helped people. On the end of the story Gladys was a look Chinese woman.

Major characters :
The Mandarin of Yangcheng became after a while a very good friend of Gladys. He was a very powerful figure.. The Mandarin rouled over Yangcheng. He was very rightful and listened good to the advice of Gladys. They talked often together. Gladys got many preferences of the Mandarin.
Jeannie Lawson was a very tall woman of seventy-four years old and was a missionary too. She had children but they went off into the world. In the story Jeannie died by a fall of the balcony.
Linnen was a very very good friend of Gladys too. They fell in love with eachother. Linnen wanted to marry. But Gladys said first they must help the people in the war and after the war they could marry. They never married. Linnen was an army officer.

Gladys had many friends and they all helped her. These were good friends :
David Davis a missionary, Yang the cook of the 'Inn of Eight Happinesses', General Ley an officer in the army, the Governor of the prison, Hsi-Lien a muleteer and many others.

Point of view :
It is told in first person narrative.

The story :
On Suterday 18th October of 1930 Gladys Aylwards moved to China to be a missionary.
The journey was very long and not without troubles. It took about three months to get in Tsehchow were she would find Mrs. Lawson (a missionary were Gladys would stay). When she was in Tsehchow two old ladies, who ran the mission there, told her that Mrs. Lawson was in Yangcheng. A day later Gladys met Mrs. Lawson in Yangcheng.
For a few weeks she tried to learn Chinese, but it was a very hard study. In the city the people threw things to them. They saw them as foreign-devils.
After a while Mrs. Lawson, Gladys and Yang the cook opened an inn, the Inn of Eight Happinesses', for muleteers. Every evening Mrs. Lawson told stories over Jesus to the guest.
After a while Mrs. Lawson and Gladys got a guarrel. Mrs. Lawson went off to look for Gladys. On a night she was in a inn and stood on the balcony. The balcony was rotten and she fell off. A few days later Gladys found Mrs. Lawson. But she die after six weeks intensive care.
On a day the Mandarin of Yangcheng came to visit Gladys. He asked if she wanted to do a job for him. She became a food-inspector. She traveled all over in the district of Yangcheng and in the mountains. She ordered the people to unbound their feet. On the journeys she told many Christian stories. The Mandarin and Gladys became very good friends. After a riot in the prison , who Gladys stopt, she became too a very goo friend of the Governor.
Gladys adopted children, Ninepence, Less, Bao-Bao, Francis and Lan-hsiang.
Gladys was now almost a Chinese, she spook perfectly Chinese, almost in all dialects. The people loved her and cold her Ai-weh-deh.
In 1936 Ai-weh-deh became an official Chinese woman. In 1938 begon the war with the Japanese. Ai-weh-deh traveled often to the mountain cities to hide. She helped the wounded. Ai-weh-deh did for the Chinese army spionage work. There happened many terrible things, and Ai-weh-deh learned to be not frightened. She believed more in God then ever.
The Japanese had set a price of hundred dollars on Ai-weh-deh's head. She flew away, for the first time. She was hit by a bule. When she came in Yangcheng she went of with a hundred children into the mountains to Sian. It was a terrible and dangerous trip. It took about one month. The children were underfeeded and weak, but they all survived. During the trip Ai-weh-deh became sick.
She worked for a while in Sian. Ninepence and her other children married and went of into the world.
An American send Ai-weh-deh to England with his money, so she could be healing. It took a long time before she was in London. There she was still a missionary, all over England.

Meaning :
It was an interesting but sad book. Sometimes the war was boring me. The strength of the woman fascinated me. It makes me thinking , how could she be so strong, helpful and not frightened. I think it became by her believe in God. The story reads fairly easy.

Theme :
The author only hoped that she had done a small justice to the woman by writing down her story and spred it all over the world.