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This is the story of the last Empress of China.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
THE STORY OF AN ORDINARY WOMAN WHO USES HER EXTRAORDINARY TALENTS TO INFLUENCE HISTORY.THIS BOOK IS AN INTERWEAVING OF FACT AND FICTION, SUBMISSION AND REBELLION, WEAKNESSES AND POWER. VERY DESCRIPTIVE, RICH IN DETAILS OF AN ERA LONG GONE. THE HIDDEN STRUGGLES IN THE IMPERIAL CITY WILL KEEP YOU ABSORBED TILL THE END.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
29 reviews
73 of 74 people found the following review helpful
A Masterpiece
8 Jun 2002
Format:Paperback
Imperial Woman tells the story of Tzu-Hsi, the last Empress of China. It is well known that she was a formidable, fierce and cruelly efficient leader, but this story begins when she is a beautiful young teenager, vibrant, full of life, and deeply in love with her cousin, a handsome and stalwart guard at the Imperial Palace.
As was the custom in the day (as I learned from this book), the Emperor yearly picked a new crop of concubines from the daughters of the wealthy of China. It was considered a great honor to send one's daughter into whoredom at the palace, and the shocking details of how they were chosen and used make up the first part of the book. Our heroine, who is still known by her childhood name, Yehonala, is sent, along with her cousin Sakota--both are picked. On one inevitable night, Yehonala is sent to the Emperor's bedroom, and there loses her innocence forever, in more ways than one.
Swiftly becoming the Emperor's favorite, our heroine learns the intrigues of the palace, learning to trust nobody but to rely on only those closest to her. She consolidates her position by giving birth to the Emperor's only son, thus receiving the new name of "fortunate mother"--and a place of power higher than any woman in the palace.
But was the Emperor's son really his son? Can the formerly innocent concubine, fast becoming a political player worthy of anybody in today's world, stay alive to see her son crowned? Or will she be murdered in the truly baroque but terribly dangerous palace in-wars?
All is told in this fascinating book, written in Buck's simple but elegant style. This is one of her best, and well worth finding and reading.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Pearl S. Buck's finest book-- and that's saying a lot.
7 Nov 1997
Format:Paperback
Though Tzu Hsi (pronounced Sue- Z) was the last Empress of China very little of her life-- both personal and private-- is known. Much as been written about this unfortunate woman; nearly all of it speculation and a good deal of it obscene. In her book "Imperial Woman" Mrs. Buck trys her hand at telling the story of Tzu Hsi and,in my opinion, comes about as close to the real woman as we're ever going to find. Tzu Hsi here is no cardboard figure but a flesh and blood woman with fear, ambition,helpless, cunning, triumphants, and deep loniless. All set mid-late 19th century China in a court, in a county, weak and rotting from the inside out while struggling to deal wth coming of the West and the 20th century. The characterization, dialogue, and discription are magnificent. A "must read"-- definatly!
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Great NOVEL, but has huge historical errors!
17 Oct 2007
Format:Paperback
This is the first book I read about Tzu Hsi, and I found it totally engrossing. After reading a number of other, more recent biographical works on her reign, it is sad to see how so many very false assumptions about her (upon which Pearl Buck bases many of the key assumptions of this novel) have created a very distorted view of her as an individual, a leader, and particulalry as a woman.
Pearl S. Buck writes in her Foreward "I have tried to portray Tzu Hsi as accurately as possible from available resources...." and this, unfortunately, is the book's biggest flaw. The scholarship was often totally false and grossly distorted, and so western writers perpetuated many false assumptions about her.
Read Sterling Seagrave's Dragon Lady if you want a more accurate portrayal of her.
Pearl S. Buck writes in her Foreward "I have tried to portray Tzu Hsi as accurately as possible from available resources...." and this, unfortunately, is the book's biggest flaw. The scholarship was often totally false and grossly distorted, and so western writers perpetuated many false assumptions about her.
Read Sterling Seagrave's Dragon Lady if you want a more accurate portrayal of her.
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