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| The Last Empress: A Novel | 
| Author: Anchee Min
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $0.71
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Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 16721
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0547053703
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780547053707
ASIN: 0547053703
Publication Date: April 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New but has a light crease to cover only. Carefully packed and shipped within 24 hours with delivery confirmation! (PP72)
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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
Product Description
The last decades of the nineteenth century were a violent period in China's history, marked by humiliating foreign incursions and domestic rebellions and ending in the demise of the Ch'ing Dynasty. The only constant during this tumultuous time was the power wielded by one woman, the resilient, ever-resourceful Tsu Hsi -- or Empress Orchid, as readers came to know her in Anchee Min's critically acclaimed, best-selling novel covering her rise to power.
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. In this concluding volume Min gives us a compelling, very human leader who assumed power reluctantly and sacrificed all to protect those she loved and an empire that was doomed to die.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 ok July 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good book.
I always wondered why China maintained itself so isolated for so many centuries. I started to understand the real reasons by reading this book.
This queen was exceptionally intelligent; she knew how to manipulate man and keep the control over millions ...excellent !
On the other hand, the read very complicated and convoluted !
 The Last Empress May 27, 2008
Fiction based on History, brings the main Character, The Last Empress to life...Was a very good selection for our book club...had a nice Chinese dinner to eat, including chop sticks,tea and lots of good discussion on the book.
historical fiction? May 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have read many historical fictions about CiXi (in Chinese) and this work (along with the prequel Empress Orchid) is the only ones that has portrayed the woman in a sympathetic light. It is commonly known that CiXi is a wicked dowager empress who has indirectly caused her sons' deaths and accelerated the downfall of the empire.
I was confused and very skeptical about the possible historical inaccuracies in the books initially but as I decided to read the books as fiction, they became quite enjoyable.
Nonetheless, I would not simply recommend the books to anyone without emphasizing the disclaimer that the stories and "facts" are not to be considered as scholarly history without further research. Since there are some doubts and confusion as to how the readers should approach the books, perhaps an introduction or preface by the author would be helpful.
Tedious Court Intrigue May 18, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
In this sequel to Empress Orchid, Anchee Min continues her revisionist portrait of the Lady Yehonala, aka, Tzu Hsi, Ci Xi, the Dowager Empress, and the Dragon Lady. Min portrays the Empress as a reluctant ruler who worked the levers of power indirectly through her emperor sons Tung Chih and Guang Hsu (who was actually the son of her deranged sister) as well as various Manchu princes and generals.
In Min's version, the empress navigates between competing conservative and reform forces as well as the demands of foreign powers. During much of her reign, China is beset by foreign demands, attacks and wars from Great Britain, France, Germany, the US, and perhaps most ominously, Japan. China is repeatedly forced to grant trade and territorial concessions. China's economy is feeble and its military archaic and ineffectual.
Through it all, in Min's telling, the empress only wants her sons to take the levers of power so that she can fade into the background. Neither is remotely capable of doing so. Someone in the imperial family has to rule and the empress reluctantly gathers the reins to herself. She gradually becomes politically adept at deflecting her enemies and supporting her allies.
Her ability to rule, however, is severely hampered because she is a woman but, even if she wasn't the Manchu are absurdly isolated and weak. They almost never leave the Forbidden City and know very little about the country they rule, let alone the outside world.Late in the book, the empress holds a dinner for the wives of foreign ambassadors, but she sits on a dais without being able to speak a single word to any of them. Nonetheless, this occasion is regarded as a great step forward. Tradition denies her a meeting with China's great friend, Robert Hart until they are both near the end of their careers and lives.
Min's work is no doubt a strong corrective to the previously held view of the empress as a cunning, blood-thirsty, perhaps drug-addled, sex fiend and ruthless tyrant. Whether the empress was really as reluctant to rule as Min portrays her or not, the portrait of her as a ruler in extraordinarily difficult and isolated circumstances forced to exercise her often limited powers through indirection seems highly plausible.
The real problem with The Last Empress book, however, was that the central actors are all tedious, shallow, and tiresome, while nearly all of the really interesting action takes place off-stage, whether it is war with Japan or the Boxer Rebellion. The empress knows little of the details of these events and consequently, neither does the reader. The Manchu dynasty is an out-of-touch empty shell, China will be dominated by outsiders, and whether the empress rules or one of a succession of pretenders makes no difference. The endless court intrigue, the empress' obsession with her appearance becomes tedious. And it is hard to empathize with the worldly sufferings of a woman who is after all an empress. One wonders whether there has ever been a less important ruler over such a long period.
The total result is only moderately interesting and a disappointment after Empress Orchid, which seemed to set the stage for a much more compelling sequel.
 Outstanding Historical Fiction December 24, 2007
A fitting sequel to Min Anchee's Empress Orchid. This book was able to present a less biased view of the Empress Dowager Cixi during the last years of the Qing Dynasty. It is sad that people would feel that the book was flawed. But I think it is because people have come to know Cixi as despotic dictator with an unsatisfiable thirst for power and riches. However if one were to read the scholarly work of Sterling Seagrave entitled Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of Chinaa, one would also see that Min Anchee's depiction is not something that one dreamt of overnight.
In fact the "lies told by the Communists" is not the only thing that has demonized the Empress Dowager, this privilege belongs to the work of many Western governments and Japan who had a lot to gain from China during that time. Unfortunately according to Sterling Seagrave "In 1974, somewhat to Oxford's embarrassment and to the private dismay of China scholars everywhere, Backhouse was revealed to be a counterfeiter...The con man had been exposed, but his counterfeit material was still bedrock scholarship". And even though some fault may be blamed on the lies made by the Cantonese Kang Yu-Wei who with the help of the British was able to escape capture and given refuge in Japan (who had several years earlier assassinated Korea's Queen Min and burned her corpse) and who was blasted on the world stage as China's Saviour by the world press (with of course with the urging of their own governments).
As a novel, I wasn't expecting a history book depiction of the last years of the Qing Dynasty, as such one cannot expect the 100% veracity of the accounts written in the book, one shouldn't loose sleep if the accounts in a novel were not exactly how one would read in history books. The reason why it is filed under fiction is because the publishers as well as the author are aware that there was some literary adjustment to the presentation of facts in this work.
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