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The Last Empress: A Novel, by Anchee Min
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The last decades of the nineteenth century were a violent period in China’s history marked by humiliating foreign incursions and domestic rebellion, ultimately ending in the demise of the Ch’ing dynasty. The only constant during this tumultuous time was the power wielded by one person, the resilient, ever-resourceful Tzu Hsi, Lady Yehonala -- or Empress Orchid, as readers came to know her in Anchee Min’s critically acclaimed novel covering the first part of her life.
The Last Empress is the story of Orchid’s dramatic transition from a strong-willed, instinctive young woman to a wise and politically savvy leader who ruled China for more than four decades. Moving from the intimacy of the concubine quarters into the spotlight of the world stage, Orchid must face not only the perilous condition of her empire but also a series of devastating personal losses, as first her son and then her adopted son succumb to early death. Yearning only to step aside, and yet growing constantly into her role, only she—allied with the progressives, but loyal to the conservative Manchu clan of her dynasty—can hold the nation’s rival factions together.
Anchee Min offers a powerful revisionist portrait based on extensive research of one of the most important figures in Chinese history. Viciously maligned by the western press of the time as the “Dragon Lady,” a manipulative, blood-thirsty woman who held onto power at all costs, the woman Min gives us is a compelling, very human leader who assumed power reluctantly, and who sacrificed all she had to protect those she loved and an empire that was doomed to die.
- Sales Rank: #490887 in Books
- Brand: Min, Anchee
- Published on: 2008-04-07
- Released on: 2008-04-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x .86" w x 5.50" l, .73 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 336 pages
Amazon.com Review
Power is a here-today, gone-tomorrow concept in Chinese history, especially for women. In her previous novel, Empress Orchid, Anchee Min covered the first part of the life of Tzu Hsi, or Empress Orchid. Now, in The Last Empress, the empress is a widow, mother of the only male heir of the now-deceased emperor, and in a formidable position. Still, she must contend with palace intrigue on all fronts; even her eunuchs are bribed. She must put up with the smiling faces of men and women who mean her great harm, and, worst of all, her son takes up with prostitutes and dies of veneral disease. She adopts her nephew to be emperor, treats him like a son, and despairs of his weakness. Constant deceit is not the only difficulty which must be faced: incursions of foreigners and domestic rebellion are also part of this violent period at the end of the 19th century. There is the love-hate relationship with the Japanese, the Boxer Rebellion, and widespread mistrust of Western foreigners. Yet Empress Orchid believes that they must appease these factions in order to preserve the dynasty and the throne. All these problems converge to bring the Ch'ing Dynasty to its eventual demise.
A disclaimer: do not read The Last Empress as straight historical fact. Anchee Min makes no bones about the fact that her writing is meant to "rehabilitate" crucial female figures in Chinese history. Whichever account of Tzu Hsi is correct, the historical tradition that she was an overbearing harridan, selfish, greedy, and bloodthirsty or Min's portrayal of her as a loving mother, trying to protect her country and longing to step down but prevented from doing so by her wishy-washy son, The Last Empress is an endlessly interesting look at palace life, that hermetically sealed world that once existed in China. --Valerie Ryan
From Publishers Weekly
Min's Empress Orchid tracked the concubine Orchid's path to becoming Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi; this revisionist look at her long years behind her son Tung Chih's throne (1863–1908) won't disappoint Orchid's fans. Recounted through Tzu Hsi's first-person, the early chapters encompass her trials as a young "widow," as co-regent with the late emperor's wife and as a mother. An engaging domestic drama gives way to pedestrian political history; Tzu Hsi lectures like a popular historian on palace intrigue, military coups, the Boxer Rebellion and conflicts with Russia, France and Japan. Though tears flow, there is little passion (save Tzu Hsi's erotic but chaste longing for Yung Lu, commander of the emperor's troops). Min's empress adopts a notably modern psychologizing tone ("How much was Guang-hsu affected when he was wrenched from the family nest?"), earthy language ("You are the most wretched fucking demon I know!") and notes of historical prescience (including what "future critics" will say). Min attacks the popular conception of Tzu Hsi as a corrupt, ruthless, power-hungry assassin, but the results read less like a novel than a didactic memoir. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Min completes her stupendous two-volume historical novel about China's Empress Tzu Hsi, or Orchid, an indomitable and forward-thinking leader who was demonized, conspired against, feared, and worshipped. In Empress Orchid (2004), Min has concubine Orchid tell the story of her unlikely rise to power as she rules on her infant son's behalf after the emperor's death in 1862. As the second novel begins, the debauched heir ascends to the throne only to die, wretchedly, at 19. Her valiant attempt to bring her deranged sister's son to the throne also fails, forcing Orchid to remain at the helm of a starving and fractious nation under siege by Japan, Russia, France, and England. The Forbidden City is a snake pit, and viciously sexist traditions and wily enemies impede Orchid at every turn. Yet she rules courageously and strategically for nearly 50 years as territory is lost to foreigners, insurgencies rise, assassins lurk, and she is forced to deny her love for the heroic general Yung Lu. Min distills and transcends a vast amount of long hidden, highly significant historical fact to create a brilliantly imagined and pellucid novel possessing all the drama and angst of a Greek tragedy in its portrayal of an unjustly maligned, truly extraordinary woman leader. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A subpar sequel...
By S. McGee
After devouring Empress Orchid in a single day, I found myself struggling to battle through this turgid sequel, which came as a surprise given that I had expected that as Min's main character moved toward consolidating power, her story would become more dramatic.
That may have been true of history, but not in this fictional recounting of the life of Tzu Hsi, aka Yehonala, or Orchid, the Manchu girl who becomes a concubine, then an Empress, then de facto dictator of China at the time of Queen Victoria. As the book opens, Orchid has buried her husband and must, alongside her fellow Empress, try to prevent the seizure of power by those who will try to destroy her infant son. Then she must tackle the bigger challenge of ruling the vast empire, as it comes under constant siege from Western powers. It's a two-front war that she is doomed to lose -- if she spends the time and attention that she needs to on running the empire's affairs, she can't spend it on the upbringing of the young Emperor who will take over the throne when he reaches his majority. The result is a series of tragedies that could have made for great dramatic fiction.
Alas... Min's narrative reads more as if Yehonala is recounting historical fact, with occasional bursts of dialogue to remind us that we're reading fiction. It's a lot of interior monologue, as well, a device that worked better in the first book when Yehonala's challenges were of a more domestic nature (how to bring herself to the attention of the Emperor, for instance.) Perhaps the problem is simply that the issues that the Empress had to deal with were so numerous and complex that it was impossible to do justice to them? In any event, Min, who has proved her ability to craft a gripping novel elsewhere, failed to deliver on this one.
As other reviewers have noted, it's rare to see a relatively positive portrayal of Yehonala, but Min makes a compelling case for viewing the empress as a victim of her times and circumstances, caught between warring factions and with limited room to manoeuver. In so many cases, it's hard to see how she could have acted differently, and the historical record of those actions is certainly open to the interpretation that Min ascribes to them, even if the mainstream view is a far less charitable one.
The real strengths of this novel lie in Min's command of the telling detail -- Yehonala's scroll paintings, retouched by her teacher; the freezing cold and scarcity of wood one winter; the horrors of her flight from the European invasion of Beijing after the Boxer Rebellion. In contrast to the first book, however, these are overwhelmed by sometimes tedious details of endless negotiating with court figures such as Prince Kung; one of these political battles began swiftly to feel very much like another.
Recommended only to die-hard fans of Empress Orchid, who should prepare for a disappointment.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Slow Read
By Margaret S.
I usually read a book within a couple of days but I put this one down repeatedly and came back to finish it more than once. The characters are not well developed and I really didn't care what happened to any of them one way or the other. Another problem was the sheer volume of new characters being thrown into the mix which just led to confusion. The actions of the characters in the book seemed weak and because of a lack of connection to the reader it became redundant. Person XYZ is fired, re-hired, shamed, sent back to his homeland, asked to return. Rinse and repeat.
A great deal of the book was spent trying to detail the intricacies of the political situation of the time period. So much so that it took over the entire last 3/4ths of the book and made it a very boring read. It began to read as a badly written historical novel w/o the correct historical data. Definitely not one of the author's finer novels.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Nice Read
By M
I immensely enjoyed Empress Orchid, but this sequel was lacking. Not that it was a awful read, but it felt a bit dry compared to its preqel. One thing that bothered me was the lack of Princess Jung in this book. I know what happened to her in real life, but in this book no mention is made of her end. If you read Empress Orchid, you will enjoy this book, but perhaps not quite as much.
If you are already familiar with Qing Dynasty history, then you would know that this book doesn't exactly have a happy note to it, especially towards the ending, but Ms. Min's writing style is still very good, with some very beautiful descriptions.
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