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The Last Concubine [Paperback]

Lesley Downer (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 12 Feb 2009

Japan, 1865, the women's palace in the great city of Edo.

Bristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man - the young shogun. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is chosen to be his concubine.

But Japan is changing, and as civil war erupts, Sachi flees for her life. Rescued by a rebel warrior, she finds unknown feelings stirring within her; but this is a world in which private passions have no place and there is not even a word for 'love'.

Before she dare dream of a life with him, Sachi must uncover the secret of her own origins - a secret that encompasses a wrong so terrible that it threatens to destroy her ....

Frequently Bought Together

The Last Concubine + The Courtesan and the Samurai + Geisha of Gion: The True Story of Japan's Foremost Geisha: The Memoir of Mineko Iwasaki
Price For All Three: £17.97

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Product details

  • Paperback: 624 pages
  • Publisher: Corgi (12 Feb 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0552155209
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552155205
  • Product Dimensions: 12.7 x 4.1 x 19.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 244,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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› Visit Amazon's Lesley Downer Page
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Product Description

Review

'Enthralling story that brings alive a distant exotic world' -- WOMAN&HOME, March 08

'Epic romantic drama set at a pivotal point in Japanese history. This fragile world with its rigid hierarchical structures is beautifully portrayed. This is a love story but far more'
-- reFRESHlite, 12 March 2008

'The Last Concubine is an extraordinary novel--richly-imagined and compelling. An amazing achievement.'
-- SANDRA GULLAND, author of Mistress of the Sun and the Josephine B. Trilogy

'a sweeping historical drama...fluently written, and the political events, battles, customs, minutiae of daily life and even the weather have all been meticulously researched to recreate Japan in the 1860s'
-- Literary Review, April 2008

Thoroughly researched, this beautifully descriptive historical saga offers a fascinating insight into the culture of imperial Japan, and will have you hooked from the first page - wonderful
-- MY WEEKLY --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

Epic history and romance combine in a passionate, exotic novel featuring the mysterious mistress of the last shogun emperor.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put this book down! 24 May 2009
By A. Thorn
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book was a spell-binding, engrossing and a thoroughly enjoyable read. I had previously read Lesley Downer's study into the life of Geisha and found her an engaging and accessible author. I'm not a real fan of novels, but knowing that Downer had written it and that she had a broad and in-depth knowledge of Japanese history made me pick it up. I am so glad I did! It is absolutely amazing, the characters are well formed, the storyline engrossing and the backdrop of 1860s Japan awe inspiring. I read the whole thing in a matter of days (barely sleeping because I NEEDED to know what happened next!)

Some of the 1 Star reviews here complain about historical inaccuracy, but obviously these people did not read the book all the way through. Downer writes in the afterword that, while most of the setting is historically accurate, some has been stretched to fit into her story. And she explains which bits have been! She also lists a bibliography at the end for us to do our own further reading.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Rollicking Good Read 29 Nov 2009
By Kevin
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Lesley Downer is that rare thing, an expert with a gift for sharing her encyclopaedic knowledge entertainingly. She writes with a sure, light touch - and she brings nineteenth-century Japan to life. The account of travelling on foot through the mountains to Tokyo in the last days of the Shogunate is atmospheric and masterly, as are the descriptions of customs, clothes, food, fads and even scents in the Japan of the period. The author takes the reader into a vanished world at the heart of which is a love story where destinies are decided on the strength of a look or a fleeting touch. The plot includes the obligatory foreigner - but it is a measure of Downer's success that she doesn't really need her enterprising British diplomat as an entrée to the world she describes: she has already made the reader completely at home. The Last Concubine can be thoroughly recommended to anyone with an interest in Japan or an appetite for stories of adventure and romance. Like one of the previous reviewers I very much look forward to the movie.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars A romance set in a historic period 5 April 2008
By Gordon Eldridge
Format:Hardcover
The historical setting of the novel is fairly faithfully described, but the author fails to bring it to life. The picture we are given of the samurai lifestyle is somewhat flat. Duty to the liege lord may well have been the defining feature of life in the samurai era, but rather than demonstrating this through characterization, Downer repeats it to the reader till it becomes little more than a platitude. This sense of duty is then contrasted with the wonderful freedom introduced to Japan as a result of Western influence at the end of the book. This overly simplistic contrast of values is really not much more than a ruse so that the love story on which the novel centres can run its course.

The novel is an enjoyable enough read and has some interesting historical detail at times, but has a few too many implausible coincidences and small inconsistencies in the plot to ever really become a page-turner. It can also be a bit trite - a number of times the two lovers are in situations where they are so close `she could feel the heat of his skin'.... I don't mean to be overly critical, as I did enjoy the story, but it was a little too Mills and Boonish for me.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Downer Does it Again 3 April 2013
By Beadmaven
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I love Ms. Downer's books. Great history lessons, rich characters and exciting or effective plot lines. She always gets my vote!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good story 20 Dec 2012
By Mrs Beverley Griffiths
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Hooray! i chinese tale that has a good story and not too gloomy. A really good read which took you in to the palaces long gone
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic! 19 Dec 2012
By ltl_ally
Format:Paperback
Lesley Downer is a fantastic writer. She takes you away to this amazing place where you get lost in forbidden love, where the word "love" doesn't really exist. This was the first of all her books i read. I instantly fell in love with Sachi (the last concubine). You get to watch her grow from this young girl to a young woman, with all the different obstacles that face her.
Japan was a world in itself at the time of the Shogun. This gives us a glimpse of that world.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An Adventure 16 Oct 2012
By SFR Daniel
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I picked it up I said to myself, this is the way to get into Cio Cio San's dreams. I figured that Lesley Downer has spent so much time studying and thinking about Japan of that time, she would likely be able to get inside the skin of the characters. -- Indeed! All true. -- At first I said to myself oh, this is like a sword-and-sorcerers novel. This is not a medieval world, this is ancient. And that sense continued, with all the travel, geography, weather, at times nearly like a Lord of the Rings journey. Then there I was in the palace and I was afraid I would be confined there forever, dealing with endless details of protocol and refinement -- but the martial arts! Wow. And then, thank goodness, saved from all that and cast out into the great unknown again for more adventure. I really loved it. I know it is classified as a romance novel for me it is an adventure novel. With wisdom about the political and 'sociological' situation of the time. (The scenes of carnage after the European weapons entered the scenes reminded me of descriptions of the American Civil War, which was of course about that same time. The gore. The destruction. The change of a world. -- And because she managed to convey the sense of excitement about hand-to-hand combat, by the time the other butchery began, I could feel the difference viscerally.)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars The Last Concubine
I like the works by the author and have much enjoyed its reading. A very different world to anything we might expect,
but the story had a mist interest slant and unexpected... Read more
Published 18 days ago by Duncan Paul Matthews
3.0 out of 5 stars The Last Concubine
Very good read once I got into it. The start is very slow but stick with it. The story is set in Japan in the later half of the 19th century. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Karen Gooderham
4.0 out of 5 stars A LOVE STORY DEFYING CONVENTIONS OF THE TIME
Although slow to start with, well worth the read. Interesting love story about Japan during the later half the the 19th century. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Mrs L Chernowski
4.0 out of 5 stars A non gushy love story
A good easy read. Interesting history and a two pronged love story.
Insight into life in royal court in Japan.
Published 4 months ago by Pauline, Bristol
3.0 out of 5 stars Started well, then lost it's pace
I have an interest in Japanese culture of the 1800/1900's and have read quite a few books like this. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Vixenfox
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening, thoroughly enjoyable!
I loved this book! Being a fan of historical fiction and of asian-inspired books I was keen to read this. A great storyline (with some truths in the dates/uprisings etc. Read more
Published 8 months ago by geanie
2.0 out of 5 stars Trying to give it another chance
I have read Downer's book on life as a geisha and while it gives a wonderful insight I must admit even then I wasn't very engaged with her writing style, I think I just expected... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Shauni Crystal Lane
2.0 out of 5 stars an ok book
bit long winded could have been been 100 pages less .the over all story good but parts needed to cut back to keep the reader interested
Published 16 months ago by barbara talbot
5.0 out of 5 stars could not put it down, would make a fantastic film too.
I loved this book and got no work at home done until I finished it. Nice to know a lot of the characters were actual people. Read more
Published on 17 May 2011 by Alison
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