Customer Reviews

The Last Empress: A Novel

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The story here is pretty riveting: In 1852, a delicate-looking young woman from southern China joined a select new crop of imperial concubines in Peking. Known as Orchid, she was thrust forward by her parents, who were willing to gamble their 17-year-old daughter's well-being for a chance to get her inside the palace, known as the Forbidden City for its restrictive rules and clandestine manners.

"It was not a good time to enter the Forbidden City," writes Anchee Min in "The Last Empress," evoking the intrigue and opulence of 19th century China while telling the story of its improbably dominant ruler. "[T]he consequences of a misstep were often deadly."

Orchid did not misstep. Starting at a low rank among the hundreds of concubines, she gradually befriended the eunuchs who ran the palace, then bribed her way into a tryst with the young emperor. They had one nocturnal encounter. She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy -- the first male heir to the throne. For Orchid, it was the equivalent of hitting the jackpot.

Yet she did not stop there. When the emperor died unexpectedly a few years later, Orchid vied to become regent for her son, the new emperor-to-be, until he came of age. She created secret alliances, outfoxed the leading minister and had him publicly beheaded. In the years that followed, Orchid bested every rival who came along, including her co-regent, her emperor son and her emperor nephew, each of whom died in mysterious circumstances. Incredibly, in a culture that generally subjugated women, Orchid ruled China for 47 years. She died in 1908.

Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi, as Orchid was formally known, is a standout even in the impressive pantheon of Chinese history. A political reactionary who blocked reform in an era that desperately needed it, she has been reviled by historians for her stubborn adherence to traditional ways, a recalcitrance that hastened the collapse of China's imperial system. Her staunch secrecy made her the subject of wild rumors about bloodthirsty killings and voracious sexual appetite. What actually happened inside the walls of the Forbidden City in her day will never fully be known, yet Orchid's ability to hold on to power suggests that, at the very least, she was one wily politician.

In "The Last Empress," Min takes a provocative view, offering a sympathetic portrait of Orchid as a selfless woman striving to hold together a fractured nation. Orchid narrates the tale and is presented as kindhearted and uninterested in power but constantly forced to fend off the venal and small-minded noblemen of the Manchu court.

"The Last Empress" is the second volume in Min's story, continuing where she left off with "Empress Orchid" (2004). In that earlier book, Min crafted a taut narrative that followed Orchid as she grew from a naive young woman into a capable and conscientious empress. The storytelling was absorbing, and Min used historical events and sensuous, textured descriptions of China to set the scene well.

This time, unfortunately, it is not a convincing portrayal. "The Last Empress" progressively loses coherence as Orchid rises in authority. When those around her fall away, she laments in not-too-believable fashion, nor do her justifications for seizing power at critical junctures ring true. Her personality is not particularly engaging, and secondary characters -- particularly her legendary top eunuchs, An-te-hai and Li Lien-ying -- are (contrary to all historical evidence) disappointingly dull.

As in her earlier book, Min effectively employs historical detail to enrich the narrative. The scarcity of firewood in Peking one winter, for example, inspires a description of the cold, noxious hallways of the palace, smoky from the burning of raw green wood. The Taiping Rebellion, war with Japan and the Boxer Rebellion serve as dramatic backdrops for Orchid's personal odyssey. It would have been far more interesting, though, if the author had conveyed the inevitable conflict of ambition and doubt within Orchid herself, as she struggled to master diplomacy and court politics. Instead, Min gives us a good-hearted woman who responds to each crisis by trying to do the right thing. Yawn.

One cannot help but ponder Min's motivations in creating this anodyne portrait. At first I wondered whether she might be succumbing to the common hankering for a benevolent dictator. After all, in every culture there are those who yearn for a powerful leader unfettered by bureaucracies or elections, who makes political decisions that are genuinely in the national interest. It is a perennial fantasy. Yet as I read, I came to think that Min was impelled by something more personal. Her first book, the memoir "Red Azalea," beautifully captured her own fiery personality as an artistic rebel who hated to be told what to think and was singularly ill-suited to live under the totalitarian rule of China's Cultural Revolution. Min now takes a historical character, reviled in the schoolbooks of Communist China as "a mastermind of pure evil and intrigue," and presents her as a loving and generous soul. Min has said in interviews that she identifies with the Empress Dowager as a strong, independent-minded woman determined to beat the odds and that she wanted to rewrite the "lies" told by the Communists. They are indeed world-class liars, and they deserve to be challenged on history. But doing so effectively requires a more compelling and credible story.

Min herself has certainly beaten the odds, arriving in the United States in 1984 as a 27-year-old who did not speak English. Since then, she has emerged as a talented and widely acclaimed novelist in her adopted language, a remarkable feat. She is an evocative, bold writer who seems eager to take on a broad canvas. This effort is disappointing. But I suspect, and hope, that we will be hearing from her again.

In much the same way Su Tong presented imperial life in MY LIFE AS EMPEROR, Anchee Min in THE LAST EMPRESS gives the lie to Mel Brooks's oft-cited, tongue-in-cheek remark in the movie "History of the World, Part I" that "It's good to be king!" In this sequel to EMPRESS ORCHID, Ms. Min continues her novelistic, and novel, retelling of the life of Lady Yehonala, the imperial concubine who rose to become (Dowager) Empress Tsu Hsi.

Known now in the modern English (pinyin) transliteration as Ci Xi, the last Empress of China has long been reviled in China as the Dragon Lady. Portrayed as the manipulative power behind the throne of the last four Emperors of China (her husband and then her own son, followed by a nephew and finally by the infamously impotent Pu Yi), Ci Xi has been portrayed in official Chinese history as evil, power-crazed, and the proximate cause of imperial China's downfall. THE LAST EMPRESS tackles Ci Xi's life from a quite different angle. Based on extensive research Ms. Min conducted in Beijing's archives, she portrays the Dragon Lady as an empathetic figure, a loving wife and perhaps misguided mother, a woman who yearned to be released from the bondage of imperial rule over a nation in rapid decline but for the lack of intellectual capacity and political competence of her husband's successors. Thus, we are presented with an "Empress in handcuffs," chained to her position of power and wealth by the exigencies of China's late 19th Century moment.

For readers like myself not deeply schooled in Chinese imperial history, it is difficult to assess the historical veracity of Ms. Min's interpretation. Certainly, Lady Yehonala must have experienced motherly feelings and perhaps wifely feelings as well - as one of a thousand concubines in the Forbidden City, who can know how close she felt to her Emperor husband, or he to her? Whether as Empress and Dowager Ci Xi always acted so nobly in the best interests of her people and her country, however, is doubtless open to historical debate.

Regardless, one can accept THE LAST EMPRESS as a historical novel and read it for its own account. In that respect, Anchee Min offers up a fictionalized retelling of the modern decline and fall of an ancient empire. Her story delineates the rot from within, combining political machinations and self-aggrandizing power games with such intense inward-looking by most of the imperial court that most failed to see the internal and external dangers encroaching on Beijing until it was far too late. At the same time, Ms. Min provides us with a strong and insightful feel for life in China's imperial city - the nearly obscene restrictions on personal freedom and private feelings, the constant fear of physical harm or political usurpation, and the enforced emotional distance among members of the imperial family. Life for an Emperor or Empress in the Forbidden City truly was imprisonment in a gilded cage.

From the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions to the destruction of the imperial park at Yuan Ming Yuan to the economic incursions of the Western powers and the eventual territorial incursions of the Russians and Japanese, Anchee Min's story provides a novelistic framework around an extended lesson in Chinese history from 1850 - 1908. To a limited extent, her work of fiction suffers from the burden of historical fact it seeks to convey. Her story occasionally comes across as heavy on exposition of historical events and explanation of the principal players and their actions, to the detriment of her story's characters and the reader's identification with them. Where Lady Yehonala, Emperor Hsien Feng, Lady Nuharoo, Prince Kung, and the eunuch An-te-hai dominated EMPRESS ORCHID as human characters, these same individuals and a host of new faces come through in THE LAST EMPRESS somewhat less as people and somewhat more as players in a game of 19th Century realpolitik, a game that China was destined to lose despite Empress Ci Xi's apparent best efforts. The authorial trade-off is a difficult one - more intensive focus on (say) the unrequited love affair between Ci Xi and Yung Lu would have made for less history but perhaps warmer and deeper novelistic characterization. In any event, THE LAST EMPRESS offers a fulfilling sequel to EMPRESS ORCHID and a fascinating insider's perspective on the death throes of an ancient empire.

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.

Books on the Empress Tzu Hsi have always depicted her as a strong woman and ruler. The Last Empress however, appears to be written like a memoir with the empress coming off like a vacillating, wimpy dowager, pushed on by weak men in her family and court to be a ruler and/or a scapegoat when situations go wrong. Majority of the men around her are depicted as connivers behind her back, while kowtowing in front of her. The empress know who they are but is held back by etiquette and protocol to fight them. The empress cannot use the men she trust to help her fight so as not to bend anyone's nose out of shape? Unlikely story even in those times.

I usually read a book within a couple of days but I put this one down repeatedly and came back to finish it more than once. The characters are not well developed and I really didn't care what happened to any of them one way or the other. Another problem was the sheer volume of new characters being thrown into the mix which just led to confusion. The actions of the characters in the book seemed weak and because of a lack of connection to the reader it became redundant. Person XYZ is fired, re-hired, shamed, sent back to his homeland, asked to return. Rinse and repeat.

A great deal of the book was spent trying to detail the intricacies of the political situation of the time period. So much so that it took over the entire last 3/4ths of the book and made it a very boring read. It began to read as a badly written historical novel w/o the correct historical data. Definitely not one of the author's finer novels.

In the audio version of The Last Empress, Alexandra O'Karma, delivers the story in one long, flat, sad exhausted monologue. I have enjoyed O'Karma's narration of other stories, so this narration was a great disappointment. If you are interested in this book, I strongly suggest that you read it, rather than listen to it.

I cannot remember the last time I listened to an audio book where the narrator read an entire book with only one emotion or perhaps with no emotion. The Last Empress is told in the first person. O'Karma, as the empress never waivers from sounding as though she has given up on her very sad, lonely, hopeless life. No matter how a given situation is described, O'Karma's tone communicates forboding. By the time I had made it half way through the audio version of The Last Empress, I was trying out some of the sentences in a different voice--to see if the author might have had a different intention as to their meaning.

The book itself is a good, not great sequel continuing the story of the life of Tzu Hsi, or Empress Orchid. In this book the Empress struggles to maintain power, not only within her kingdom, but against the European powers who have overrun and destroyed much of the country. Tzu Hsi deals with warlords, generals and, strangely, her son the young emperor, who is ill suited to a job which would require a truly great leader. She also deals with the terrible sadness of knowing that she can never be with the man she loves, and watches him married to another woman.

There is plenty of drama in The Last Empress. Min's writing style is spare and an imaginative reader will easily fill Tzu Hsi's state of mind as she tells the story. Some of the story is exciting, some of it is sad and once in a while it is hopeful. If you are interested in the book, do read it. But skip the audio version, it will take away a lot from the story.

After devouring Empress Orchid in a single day, I found myself struggling to battle through this turgid sequel, which came as a surprise given that I had expected that as Min's main character moved toward consolidating power, her story would become more dramatic.

That may have been true of history, but not in this fictional recounting of the life of Tzu Hsi, aka Yehonala, or Orchid, the Manchu girl who becomes a concubine, then an Empress, then de facto dictator of China at the time of Queen Victoria. As the book opens, Orchid has buried her husband and must, alongside her fellow Empress, try to prevent the seizure of power by those who will try to destroy her infant son. Then she must tackle the bigger challenge of ruling the vast empire, as it comes under constant siege from Western powers. It's a two-front war that she is doomed to lose -- if she spends the time and attention that she needs to on running the empire's affairs, she can't spend it on the upbringing of the young Emperor who will take over the throne when he reaches his majority. The result is a series of tragedies that could have made for great dramatic fiction.

Alas... Min's narrative reads more as if Yehonala is recounting historical fact, with occasional bursts of dialogue to remind us that we're reading fiction. It's a lot of interior monologue, as well, a device that worked better in the first book when Yehonala's challenges were of a more domestic nature (how to bring herself to the attention of the Emperor, for instance.) Perhaps the problem is simply that the issues that the Empress had to deal with were so numerous and complex that it was impossible to do justice to them? In any event, Min, who has proved her ability to craft a gripping novel elsewhere, failed to deliver on this one.

As other reviewers have noted, it's rare to see a relatively positive portrayal of Yehonala, but Min makes a compelling case for viewing the empress as a victim of her times and circumstances, caught between warring factions and with limited room to manoeuver. In so many cases, it's hard to see how she could have acted differently, and the historical record of those actions is certainly open to the interpretation that Min ascribes to them, even if the mainstream view is a far less charitable one.

The real strengths of this novel lie in Min's command of the telling detail -- Yehonala's scroll paintings, retouched by her teacher; the freezing cold and scarcity of wood one winter; the horrors of her flight from the European invasion of Beijing after the Boxer Rebellion. In contrast to the first book, however, these are overwhelmed by sometimes tedious details of endless negotiating with court figures such as Prince Kung; one of these political battles began swiftly to feel very much like another.

Recommended only to die-hard fans of Empress Orchid, who should prepare for a disappointment.

I actually did not read this, but I bought it and it's predecessor "Empress Orchid" for my fiance and all I can say is I hear a lot about it afterward and she litterally could not put them down finishing both books in 3 days over Christmas weekend. From my understanding this a book for anyone interested in a good woman's perspective and intrigue set in China's Imperial Court. And if you are interested in a different, more provincial prospective, my fiance also loved "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See. All three books of which are available through Amzon.com

It is a good book to read and it accounts the series of events that eventually brought a collapse to the Manchu dynasty. However, I find there is a gap between the character of the Empress from the first book 'Empress Orchid' to this one.

In the first sequel, Empress Orchid was portrayed as a more ambitious and decisive person with a very strong character. While in the second book, her character seemed to have mellowed so much up to the point of being totally indecisive and hopeless. While this might be expected as one aged, it is still hard to bridge the image of the same character between these two books.

Anchee Min is the new James Michener of historical fiction. But instead of focusing on many centuries of history, Ms. Min focuses on the time periods that are apropos to that character's life. She captures the fall of imperial China leaving the reader with a much better understanding of how historical events from that time period has shaped the modern psyche of the Chinese today. Although Ms. Min's book describes how England, Germany, Russia, and Japan took advantage of a China in a state of decline, she also deals with universal themes, such as being a mother and sacrificing oneself for the greater good of society. Empress Orchid is tormented by the fact that she does not have control over the shaping of the morality of her son. Instead, it is Senior Empress Nuharoo who will shape the moral fiber of Orchid's son Tung Chih. Unfortunately, Tung Chih is an example of how spoiling a child can ruin his inner strength and morality. Also, Empress Orchid cannot act on her desire to be romantically involved with Yung Lu because court etiquette and imperial tradition forbid it. The last universal theme deals with what is it like to be in the winter phase of the life cycle. Some elderly people outlive their friends and even sometimes their children. Ms. Min captures the thoughts that people might have who have outlived their children, friends, and other important people in their lives.

Overall, The Last Empress is a must read for a person who wants to learn more about China or just about experiencing the various cycles of life.