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Title details for The Last Empress by Anchee Min - Available

The Last Empress

#2 in series

by Anchee Min
Alexandra O'Karma
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
At the end of the nineteenth century, China is rocked by humiliating foreign attacks and local rebellions. The only constant is the power wielded by one woman: the resilient, ever-resourceful Tzu Hsi, also known as Empress Orchid.
Moving from the intimacy of the concubine quarters into the spotlight of the world stage, Orchid makes a dramatic metamorphosis from a strong-willed young woman to a wise political leader, who must not only face the perilous condition of her fading empire but also a series of devastating personal losses. Yearning to step aside yet growing constantly into her role, only she can hold the nation's rival factions together...

  • Creators

  • Series

    Empress Orchid

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 5, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781449899974
      • File size: 430128 KB
      • Duration: 14:56:05

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 1, 2007
      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.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In Min's first book, EMPRESS ORCHID, Alexandra O'Karma portrayed a 17-year-old concubine whose feisty temperament gained her entrance to the bed of the emperor and put her in a powerful position. Now Empress Tzu Hsi, who is based on a real-life nineteenth-century figure, is middle-aged, and O'Karma's voice portrait is mature and weary. This makes more and more sense as Empress Orchid ages and faces nonstop personal and political stresses. She gives up the man she loves, sees her birth son die, and discovers her adopted son's weakness. Her impoverished government is under siege by foreign powers and is being attacked from within by warring factions. Despite all, O'Karma's delivery reveals the strength and caring of this fictionalized character in a portrait that, according to the author, attempts to "rehabilitate" history's vilifying picture of the Empress. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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