Before I attempt to say anything about this novel, I simply wish to note that I do not in any way award these five stars out of some misguided sentiment that this book accurately portrays China and all its entailing history as its own cultural members would. The most concrete experience I have with the country is having been taught the Chinese phrases for 'left turn', 'right turn', and 'straight ahead' during a road trip many years ago, and I assure you, neither my intercultural credibility nor my accent has improved since then. What I do award these five stars for is the wonderful piece of work that Buck created, a fictional recounting of the life of the last Empress of China. It wasn't too long ago that I read Memoirs of Hadrian, another novel concerned with the fictional portrayal of a historical personage who ruled for much of their life over a vast and complex culture. Both that novel and this required my reader self to step back a moment from their usual outpost of critiquing from the realms of factual accuracy and moral codes, and instead plunge headfirst into the lives of these individuals, both of whom entire empires held in reverence. Within this respective novel, the girl Orchid, the imperial concubine Yehonala, the Empress Mother Tzu Hsi, and the venerable Old Buddha play out their shared life within the bodily confines of a single woman. A woman who grew from one of millions to be one of the chosen hundreds to finally the one venerated above all others, who stayed that way through thriving peace and cultural upheaval until the end of her days. A woman who never needed full approval from neither her kinsman nor the reader, but simply a willingness to follow her. And follow her I did.The ease with which I immersed myself in this fictionalized biography of a foreign land is a credit to Buck and her lovingly thorough storytelling. For the difficulty with historical fiction, a difficulty that only increases when the fiction chooses to follow a single personage of notable fame, is the ever present competition between the enraptured gaze of the reader and the desire to fact check. What worsens the latter distraction even more so is when the cultural setting is completely foreign and, as noted previously, tempts the reader to view the book penned by an outsider as a true glimpse of the inside. And with the feeling of reading truth, comes the ease of subsequent judgment and all too frequent condemnation.Thus, I could have tired of Buck's page after page of detailing the life of this young Manchu girl who grew to become the Empress of China, the traditional values, the cultural artifacts, the countless court proceedings that meandered as slowly as was needed to recount the days with full insight into the visual splendor and historical significance. I could have become frustrated with the Empress herself, achieving such power and all the self righteous confidence that often accompanies it, adhering to standards of living that seem so strange in comparison to my own. I could have turned the final page with a feeling that my time would have been better spent with an accredited biography, or even a book written by an actual denizen of that far off mainland.But I didn't. I watched this Empress grow from the impetuous courage of youth to the venerable wisdom of old age, and I rooted her on in every page. I delighted in the beauty of both the aesthetic and the erudite contained within the walls of the Forbidden City, as well as the sheer wealth of this culture that despite my long familiarity with I in truth know so little about. I watched as the future took its horrific toll on the heartfelt desire to maintain the value of the past, and mourned the tragedy of one world power colliding with another in an overwhelming miasma of violent misunderstanding. From this fictional seat in the so called East, I watched as the West and its drastically different histories flung itself upon these shores so foreign to its inherent sociocultural natures. From the mind of an Empress, I understood the disparity between the power a ruler has, and what is truly required of them in order to successfully rule. In short, while the setting was foreign and the facts perhaps not in full adherence, the story was a human one, something I can recognize in any form. I felt for this Empress and the country she cherished in her own brilliant and steadfast ways, and perhaps even learned a few things about an ancient world that exists alongside my own to this day. And when it comes to the realm of historical fiction, that's all that I ask for.
Who wrote about Chinese history and the empresses before Anchee Min? Where did she get her inspiration from? Well before Anchee Min there was Pearl Buck. Now, now simmer down. There is nothing wrong with Anchee Min I have read her books and love them too. She has a new book just released on 5-07-2013, The Crooked Seed. Can’t wait to grab a copy of this one! Oh boy the to read list goes on and on! So on to the review.This book was originally released in 1956. It has been re-released 5-21-2013 as an e-book with a brand new cover. Integrated Media is re-releasing many of Pearl S. Buck’s works as e-books with new covers. I received a free kindle copy on NetGalley. Another of her books, The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. One of her novels was found in a Texas storage locker last fall. The Eternal Wonder, the just found book, will be released on October 22, 2013. While many people have heard of The Good Earth, there are many other Pearl Buck novels out there to be enjoyed.I think that I may have read this book a long time ago. It was worth reading again. I rarely read anything more than once!!! I have to say this was an enjoyable, easy and quick read. It reads like a movie. The story just smoothly unfolds. This is a great book! I think that it has timeless appeal.How does Tzu-hsi go from just another young Chinese girl to being the last Empress of China? How does she gain favor as a concubine and surpass her competitors? Will she ever be able to have a relationship with her true love who is head of the Imperial Guard? This is a fictional account of Tzu-hsi’s rise to power and her ability to hold on to control of the Empire. This book is a fascinating look at the Forbidden City and the end of an era in Chinese history. I give it 4/5 stars. I am not telling you everything here. I don’t want spoil it for you! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.http://pattyspaperbacks.wordpress.com...
What do You think about Imperial Woman (2004)?
When I was little and read East Wind West Wind, I was surprised at how interesting and engaging the book was, seeing that it was historical fiction and I don't particularly like history.Well, Imperial Woman delivered, it was long and bored me as I imagine a historical novel would. I did appreciate a lot of it, but it was not nearly as enlightening as I remember East Wind West Wind being to my young self.I kept thinking I'd enjoyed this book more if it was a movie. It was full of descriptions of beautiful dresses, jewelry, architecture and nature, and I don't know particularly well, what that period China would have actually looked like. On the other hand, the thoughts of the empress were all the authors guesses anyway and weren't particularly interesting at that.I'm sad that East Wind West Wind is not available on audible as that was what I actually wanted to listen to.
—Sandra
May you live in interesting times...This is the story of Tzu Hsi, who ruled as regent and Empress of China from 1861-1908, effectively the end of the empire, which collapsed just 3 years after her death. For the major part of her reign, Tzu Hsi tried to hold back the tide of progress being forced on her by the various Western powers as they jostled to gain a foothold in this vast country.Pearl S Buck, as the short biography at the end of this new Kindle edition reveals, was the daughter of missionaries and lived in China for many years as both child and adult. Born in 1892, she would undoubtedly have been old enough to remember the end of Tzu Hsi's reign and would have had first-hand experience of being a child of foreign Christians during the Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the century. Tzu Hsi is portrayed here as a beautiful, ambitious tyrant, scheming to become and then remain Empress. First as concubine to a weak Emperor and then as regent for her son, she uses her beauty and charm to manipulate those around her; but when beauty and charm fail, she is content to use torture, beheading and 'slicing' to get her own way, with a calm ruthlessness that never prevents her from ensuring that she is well-perfumed and beautifully dressed. Buck lets us see her tyrannous side growing as she faces threats from domestic rebels, plotting courtiers and foreign armies. But we are also shown her loneliness and isolation, and the personal sacrifices she has to make to hold her position in a society where women are considered inferior and unsuited to rule.Buck uses a stylised form of prose suggesting perhaps a translation of the formal language of the court. Whether this tone is authentic, I don't know, but I'm afraid I found it intensely irritating after a while. The book is filled with descriptions of clothes, palaces, jewellery and the minutiae of how the Empress lived and, while this is interesting at first, it quickly becomes repetitive, pulling the story down to a slow - very slow - crawl. Although told in the third person, we see exclusively through Tzu Hsi's eyes which means that, like her, we are isolated and cut-off from the world outside the imperial court - a missed opportunity, it seemed to me, to get a feel for the realities of what was happening in China at the time. I've struggled to rate this book. On the one hand, the stylised prose and the over-detailed descriptions meant that the long slog of reading dampened any sense of tension or excitement that should rightly have been created by the events being related. On the other hand, Tzu Hsi's story is a fascinating one and certainly worth the telling, and overall I'm glad to have read it - so recommended, but with reservations. NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Open Road.www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
—Leah
The first time I read "Imperial Woman" I was fifteen years old; to cut a long story short, I lost it and ten years later I found myself looking for this book everywhere because I remembered I liked it so much.When I finally got my hands on this book again I reread it in a blink of an eye, totally captured by the life of this amazing Empress.While reading this I was totally thinking "I want to be like this woman!".It has nothing to do with spirituality or self-help books but it inspired me in being a better person.I'm not sure how to explain it, but there's much more than simply a well-written novel and an engaging story. The way Ci Xi is described, the way she acts and thinks is surely intriguing and her story will make you feel mixed emotions for sure.I'm not a historian and can't say if the story is true to Ci Xi's real life or not, but judging the novel itself it's a must-have book indeed.It will always have a special place in my favourite-books list.
—Giuli Tegon
