Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10860 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Synopsis
At the end of the nineteenth century China is rocked by foreign attacks and local rebellions. The only constant is the power wielded by one woman, Tzu Hsi, also known as Empress Orchid, who must face the perilous condition of her empire and devastating personal losses. In this sequel to the bestselling "Empress Orchid", Anchee Min brings to life one of the most important figures in Chinese history, a very human leader who sacrifices all she has to protect both those she loves and her doomed empire.

Customer Reviews

Difficult to engage with
In 'Empress Orchid', Orchid herself was a young woman - naive, impressionable, and with good intentions. Min portrayed her protagonist's desperation very well, and in that novel Orchid's methods of surviving in the Forbidden City were justified - she was dealing with a hostile court, a weak husband, and a spoiled son.

But in 'The Last Empress', things go a little downhill. While Orchid was a layered and difficult character in the first book, she came across as being genuinely good at heart - in this novel, however, she is incredibly difficult to empathise with.

The main problem is the children. Orchid raises several young boys as heir to the Dragon Throne during this novel, and none of them are any good at it. They all end up being miserable, selfish or weak (sometimes all three), and each time she realises she has failed once again, Orchid - now ruling the country of China - protests that she doesn't know where she went wrong. She complains to the now-uncaring reader, and you begin to lose patience with a woman whose common sense is clearly lacking when it comes to raising children. She switches from being indulgent to suddenly taking a harsher line, by which time the damage is done.

The saving grace of the novel is its' adroit following of the political situation in China during Orchid's time as Empress - the situation is described in detail, and I learned a lot about Chinese history from the book. In that sense, it's reccomended. Unfortunately, however, you have to put up with the now less-than-likeable character of the narrator and her saga of failed upbringings to get the historical benefit.

If you want a history of pre-war China, I would reccomend this book - as long as you can skip the irritating character-driven sections.

Goodbye To All That
Fascinating subject but clunkily written and ponderously repetitive. Nothing flows - the dialogue is glitchy and unreal and the narrative constantly repeats the same thoughts. Perhaps the Empress was incapable of original thought but her life was actually a lot more interesting than found here. I THINK the reader is supposed to empathise with the subject but there is neither sufficient character nor depth of background to make this Empress real. She just plods on, thinking the same old things, doing the same old things, little benefitting China. In the end, you don't care but worth looking up the Empress in the Britannica.

Another masterpiece from Anchee Min!
It's been a few years since I first read Anchee Min's first book on the life of China's Empress Dowager Tz'u-Hsi which blew me away.
I wasn't even aware that Anchee Min was even working on a second and final instalment of Tz'u-Hsi's life until i was browsing the isles of WHSmiths and came across "The last empress".

I quickly ordered the book from Amazon (much cheeper) and waited impatiently for its arrival.

As soon as "The last empress" arrived I dives straight in and was not dissapointed!

Anchee Min has created another masterpiece which is a must for anybody interested in Tz'u-Hsi, the Manchu dynasty, China or a great story made all the more amazing because it's a true story.

"The last empress" encompasses the later stages of Tz'u-Hsi's life and what are esentially the last years of the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty's rule in China.

In the west, the east and even in China itself Tz'u-Hsi has been demonised as "the dragon lady" an evil despot desperate to keep power and China in her hands.

It's wonderfull that Anchee Min has dared to think outside the box and portray Tz'u-Hsi as what she really was, the daughter of an impoverished and disgraced provincial governer who entered the forbidden city as a concubine and left in death as Empress Dowager.

All through the book we see how Tz'u-Hsi fought to save China from the "civilised" west and Japan who systematicaly "raped" China and forced unfair and embarassing treaty after treaty first on Tz'u-Hsi's husband, then her son and finally her nephew (and addopted son).

It disgusted me how the west and Japan took advantage ofChina which didn't want to fight and when it came to the point that they had to were no match for the Iron ships and guns of the west and Japan.

Overall I give this book five stars because I can't give it six.
This book is a masterpiece and along with "Empress Orchid" will hopefully dispell peoples perceptions of Tz'u-Hsi as the evil and tyranical woman who brought the Chinese empire to its knees with her greed and lust for power.

The truth is that the western nations and the newly "modernised" Japanese brought China to its knees and it was only Tz'u-Hsi's strength of character and determination that kept the empire from falling sooner.

In my view Anchee Min has created a lasting and fitting legacy that will in time help to exhonerate the name of possibly the greatest woman China has ever produced, The Empress Dowager Tz'u-Hsi.