To rescue her family from poverty and avoid marrying her slope-shouldered cousin, seventeen-year-old Orchid competes to be one of the Emperor's wives. When she is chosen as a lower-ranking concubine she enters the erotically charged and ritualised Forbidden City. But beneath its immaculate facade lie whispers of murders and ghosts, and the thousands of concubines will stoop to any lengths to bear the Emperor's son. Orchid trains herself in the art of pleasuring a man, bribes her way into the royal bed, and seduces the monarch, drawing the attention of dangerous foes. Little does she know that China will collapse around her, and that she will be its last Empress.
Based on a true story, this novel is the work of many years of research that included documents Min smuggled from the Forbidden City. Empress Orchid is the story of Tzu Hsi, China's longest-reigning female ruler and its last Empress. For decades Chinese schoolchildren have been taught that Empress Orchid was "a mastermind of pure evil and intrigue," but Min presents a strong-willed, utterly compelling woman who used her beauty to become a concubine of the Emperor and her brains to become his confidante and lover. A novel of power and alienation during one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history — its forced opening to the West.
I totally enjoyed this book. Yes, I know it's not a new book and in fact, I actually bought it in 2007 and now only it's being read. I still have thousands of books all over my room that are calling out to me. Hahaha!!!
370 pages
RM31.60
Publisher: Bloomsbury
MPH
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