Customer Reviews

With the Empress Dowager of China (Kessinger Publishing's Rare Reprints)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This reproduced "out of print" book is a must have for anyone interested in a first person account of time spent with the Empress and the royal court. A foreign female artist, who was invited to paint a portrait of the Empress Tzu Hsi for the St. Louis Exibition, Miss Carl originally wrote in order refute untrue newspaper accounts of her visit to the "Dragon Lady." The book reads like a charming and interesting personal diary and gives the reader an unprecidented look inside the royal court by the working artist who was treated like an honored guest. It was interesting to me how the Empress, taking into consideration her time and place, seemed not unlike the current Queen Elizabeth with regard to public decorum and adherence to tradition. I feel this book helps to give a more rounded view of the Empress as all humans have many aspects to their personality. The book is nicely bound in a hard cover and includes some photos and drawings by the author. I would have liked the cover to be more artistic instead of a generic "text-book" type cover but overall the quality of reproduction is good. As a side note, it was while reading Pearl Buck's historical fiction Imperial Woman (also about the Empress) that I came upon this book.