The Emperor (Paperback)

by Ryszard Kapuscinski (Author) "In the evenings I listened to those who had known the Emperor's court..." (more)
Key Phrases: gracious sir, personal people, Haile Selassie, Addis Ababa, Imperial Guard (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Haile Selassie, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia, enjoyed a 44-year reign until his own army gave him the boot in 1974. In the days following the coup, the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski traveled to Ethiopia and sought out members of the imperial court for interviews.

His composite portrait of Selassie's crumbling imperium is an astonishing, wildly funny creation, beginning with the very first interview. "It was a small dog," recalls an anonymous functionary, "a Japanese breed. His name was Lulu. He was allowed to sleep in the Emperor's great bed. During various ceremonies, he would run away from the Emperor's lap and pee on dignitaries' shoes. The august gentlemen were not allowed to flinch or make the slightest gesture when they felt their feet getting wet. I had to walk among the dignitaries and wipe the urine from their shoes with a satin cloth. This was my job for ten years." (Well, it's a living.)

Elsewhere, the interviewees venture into tragic or grotesque or downright unbelievable terrain. Kapuscinski has shaped their testimonies into an eloquent whole, and while he never alludes to the totalitarian regime that ruled his native Poland during the same period, the analogy is impossible to ignore.

Review
"[The Emperor] transcends reportage, becoming a nightmare of power... An unforgettable, fiercely comic, and finally compassionate book."
—Salman Rushdie

"Kapuscinski transcends the limitations of journalism and writes with the narrative power of a Conrad or Kipling or Orwell."
—Blake Morrison

"A Stunning exhibit; the interviewed subjects. . .enunciate their memories of the days of Haile Selassie with a magical elegance that. . .achieves poetry and aphorism."
—John Updike, The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (March 13, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679722033
• ISBN-13: 978-0679722038
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,433 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #1 in	Books > History > Africa > Ethiopia
  #14 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Royalty
  #29 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Leaders & Leadership

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eyewitness to a Strange History, August 24, 2003

By	doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This is a very unique book presenting a seemingly casual investigation of the last days of Haile Selassie's reign in Ethiopia. Note that this is not a history of Ethiopia or Selassie's reign, so prior knowledge on these subjects would be an advantage. Kapuscinski offers clandestine interviews with members of the Emperor's court and ministries, as they watched the slow and rather bizarre downfall of the autocrat. While non-Ethiopians often see Selassie as an enlightened visionary and Moses-like leader of his people, the reality was much different closer to home. Here we find an entrenched demagogue more concerned with preserving his power with little knowledge of the lives of his subjects. He surrounded himself with yes-men with the same self-preserving motives, and like any fading dictator he regularly purged anyone even remotely connected to independent thinkers. In one interview, a member of the court regrets sending his son to college, as the young man became infested with ideas that were not loyal to the Emperor, though they were probably accurate. Kapuscinski's anonymous subjects underhandedly point out their leader's faults while constantly heaping titles on him like "His Enlightened Majesty" or "His Benevolent Highness." This indicates the leader's cult of personality and his employees' pathological fear of losing his favor. We then see the classic fall of an out-of-touch despot, as he was ousted in one of the weirdest revolutions of all time. This unique book seems like lightweight reporting at the surface, but ultimately offers numerous lessons in power and corruption, and Selassie's story offers many parallels for autocrats around the world and throughout history. [~doomsdayer520~]

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Hail the King of Kings?, July 14, 1999

By	[e-mail] (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

All hail His August Majesty!! That is what Haile Selassie heard from a nation of people that worshipped, but feared the King of Kings. During his most powerful years as Emperor of Ethiopia His Imperial Majesty was the most powerful person in this ancient culture. As Kapuscinski relates through eloquent anecdotes, his power and national approval would soon change.

The book is structured into three chapters, The Throne, It's Coming, It's Coming, and The Collapse. Imperial Palace inhabitants relate stories that describe the feelings and attitudes of those closest to the Emperor. Kapuscinski gives you a sense of what it was like to be in the palace in times of great affluence and abundance. Just when you thought it could not get any better, the feeling of revolution sets in. He describes how the people began to tire of the monarchy, loose respect for power, and grow increasingly hungry. It was captivating to read how the dignitaries tried to hold on to their imperious way of life, while the revolution was taking place outside the palace gates.

This book takes you inside the palace during crucial times of Haile Selassie's reign. You get a sense of what the people were thinking, but did anyone ever know what Haile Selassie was actually thinking?

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth is stranger (and better) than fiction., August 19, 1997

By	[e-mail] (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

Reading this nonfiction account of Haile Selassie's long goodbye, the reader soon shares the sentiments expressed in the book by some Ethiopian students, "My God, how can anything like this exist?" Kapuscinski's assembled witnesses tell tales of a bizarre and surreal empire no writer of fiction could ever imagine. This book is filled with memorable and evocative passages - scenes of rag-clad beggars fighting for scraps from the opulent banquet going on just feet away; of once-dignified and imperious courtiers squabbling over blankets as they wait to be dragged away to prison by the members of a military junta; and, most pathetically, of a washed-up and defeated emperor hiding his money in a set of holy books and under a carpet to prevent it from being taken away to be "nationalized." While this is ostensibly the story of Haile Selassie's fall from power, excised of names, places and dates it becomes the story of any dictator's seedy demise. As such it makes an interesting companion to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's classic, "The Autumn of the Patriarch," another powerful work on the decay of dicatorial authority. At turns humorous and horrifying, amusing and appaling, ridiculous and realistic, "The Emperor" makes worthy and unforgettable reading, both as history and as great literature