The Last Empress

The last decades of the nineteenth century were a violent period in China’s history marked by humiliating foreign incursions and domestic rebellion, ultimately ending in the demise of the Ch’ing dynasty. The only constant during this tumultuous time was the power wielded by one person, the resilient, ever-resourceful Tzu Hsi, Lady Yehonala -- or Empress Orchid, as readers came to know her in Anchee Min’s critically acclaimed novel covering the first part of her life.

The Last Empress is the story of Orchid’s dramatic transition from a strong-willed, instinctive young woman to a wise and politically savvy leader who ruled China for more than four decades. Moving from the intimacy of the concubine quarters into the spotlight of the world stage, Orchid must face not only the perilous condition of her empire but also a series of devastating personal losses, as first her son and then her adopted son succumb to early death. Yearning only to step aside, and yet growing constantly into her role, only she—allied with the progressives, but loyal to the conservative Manchu clan of her dynasty—can hold the nation’s rival factions together.

Anchee Min offers a powerful revisionist portrait based on extensive research of one of the most important figures in Chinese history. Viciously maligned by the western press of the time as the “Dragon Lady,” a manipulative, blood-thirsty woman who held onto power at all costs, the woman Min gives us is a compelling, very human leader who assumed power reluctantly, and who sacrificed all she had to protect those she loved and an empire that was doomed to die.

Power is a here-today, gone-tomorrow concept in Chinese history, especially for women. In her previous novel, Empress Orchid, Anchee Min covered the first part of the life of Tzu Hsi, or Empress Orchid. Now, in The Last Empress, the empress is a widow, mother of the only male heir of the now-deceased emperor, and in a formidable position. Still, she must contend with palace intrigue on all fronts; even her eunuchs are bribed. She must put up with the smiling faces of men and women who mean her great harm, and, worst of all, her son takes up with prostitutes and dies of veneral disease. She adopts her nephew to be emperor, treats him like a son, and despairs of his weakness. Constant deceit is not the only difficulty which must be faced: incursions of foreigners and domestic rebellion are also part of this violent period at the end of the 19th century. There is the love-hate relationship with the Japanese, the Boxer Rebellion, and widespread mistrust of Western foreigners. Yet Empress Orchid believes that they must appease these factions in order to preserve the dynasty and the throne. All these problems converge to bring the Ch'ing Dynasty to its eventual demise.

A disclaimer: do not read The Last Empress as straight historical fact. Anchee Min makes no bones about the fact that her writing is meant to "rehabilitate" crucial female figures in Chinese history. Whichever account of Tzu Hsi is correct, the historical tradition that she was an overbearing harridan, selfish, greedy, and bloodthirsty or Min's portrayal of her as a loving mother, trying to protect her country and longing to step down but prevented from doing so by her wishy-washy son, The Last Empress is an endlessly interesting look at palace life, that hermetically sealed world that once existed in China. --Valerie Ryan

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.

This is only a book for fun - no historic and/or any other values at all. If you ever want to sort of (and even only "sort of") get the idea about the character of CiXi, don't look into this book for this ever! Otherwise, people would have thought you are either joking about the history, or, pretending you know the history about this woman.

This is a two book story. This first one sets up the history which is needed for this story to be complete,so I would recommend reading Empress Orchid first. But back to this book, the story continues about this stong "dragon lady", how she plotted to protect herself and her son(s). She ruled thru her son(s)with a fair amount of success. Much of the time she was between a rock and a wall. She wanted to protect her China. This was made difficult due to politics within the palace. The western countrys such as England all wanted something. Trade,money,land. This book does well to keep the story about the Empress and not dwell too much on all the other details. You can look up this other information if interested.

Very interesting materials. Educational and fair. Well read. Good voice. Not too fast nor too dramatic. I like listening books that are delivered gently for relaxing purpose specially. Most audio cds don't see that and try to make it like a soap opera. I really value this purchase.

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.