Discoveries: Forbidden City (Discoveries (Harry Abrams)) [Paperback]

Dominique Morel (Author), Giles Beguin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: French (translation)
Original Language: English

Product Details

• Paperback: 143 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810928221
• ISBN-13: 978-0810928220
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,137,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Little Book, December 27, 1999

By 

Kathleen (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Discoveries: Forbidden City (Discoveries (Harry Abrams)) (Paperback)

I have been fascinated with the Forbidden City ever since I saw the movie, The Last Emperor. This little book is just jam packed full of information. Lots of pictures (old and new), maps of the grounds, so that you can easily understand the relationship of the buildings to one another, plus old paintings & drawings. Lots of text on the emperors, concubines, artwork, temples and gardens. It is a mini history lesson. I liked this book so much I have ordered others in the discoveries series, I hope they are as interesting as this one.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clever design but get a good map, January 5, 2005

By 

Roy de Lune (Harrisburg, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Discoveries: Forbidden City (Discoveries (Harry Abrams)) (Paperback)

This book is cleverly laid out, well edited, and the best of the three books I bought on the world's largest palace--the 2000-acre Forbidden City. For a pocket guide it is outstanding--full of everything from photos of rooms in the palace, art objects, paintings, sculpture, emperors, empresses, eunuchs, and poems. It even includes interviews with Bertolucci (maker of the film The Last Emperor), the words of the last emperor himself, and commentaries that give insight into court life.

My only criticism is that there is no large or comprehensive map. The maps included are so small for such a large palace, that at least half of the areas are unmarked. Since the Chinese names for the buildings are etheral, they also make you guess as to the building's function such as "Hall of Concentrated Beauty" or "Gate of Heavenly Purity". More running commentary on buildings would be appreciated.

Luckily, in the palace, there are a few english plaques explaining the purpose of halls, especially the outer or formal section. As I understand it, most of the palace is open for visiting, although the private sections are in need of repair. Check out their website under "Palace Museum" which is the official title of the Forbidden City. I had a hard time with it but it is surprising to me that they are even on the web. I tried to download a map from the web, but it failed and the information provided on the website is incomprehensive.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in China's history. It's a lot of book for $10.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Armchair Guide, March 26, 2004

By 

F. J. Powell (Chester, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discoveries: Forbidden City (Discoveries (Harry Abrams)) (Paperback)

I think this slim guide, that slips easily into a pocket, is the perfect beginner's guide to the Forbidden City. It does have great photos, historical drawings and the maps (arial and drawn) of this World Culture Site, but in addition, it has an entire section at the back on documents pertaining to the Forbidden City, including historical eyewitness accounts, Ming and Qing chronologies, and a short biblography for going more into depth.

I have not been to Mainland China (yet), but i used this little book to prepare for a visit to the fabulous temporary exhibit on Emperor Qianlong and the Golden Age of the Forbidden City now on loan from Beijing to Chicago's Field Museum . It made the experience very rich indeed.

Béguin and Morel's book is their second version, the first one having a slightly different title. "The Forbidden City, Heart of Imperial China. Kean Chhay Chang wrote a very good review of that edition, which you can see under the aforementioned title here on the Amazon site. From what she wrote, I don't think they've changed much (thank goodness!) but in this edition the maps are not straddling two pages, as mentioned in a review of the previous edition.

My only regret is that it doesn't cover much of the private compounds within the Forbidden City, but then none of the guidebooks I saw at the exhibit did either.