Empress Orchid

Responding to last anonymous reviewer.

In regards to the last anonomous reviwer, this book is classified as a fiction. Min has every right to express or portay Empress Orchid in her view. However, you seemed almost convinced (maybe even brainwashed from Chinese history which tends to blame everything on the women) that it is Empress Orchid is a negative person. For example, how many thousands of years has the women been responsible to bring sons to the family and it is still going on today!!! Look at all the babies girls being thrown away just so families can have a son to bear their last name! Yet, it was never the sons fault!!! Bound by tradition, Orchid fought her way to save China, and try to help her son become Emperor. Perhaps it was ShunShim that poisoned Guang-Xsu? How was it provened it was Empress Orchid? Please enlighten us with your fact!!! Dont forget, its a fictional novel! Either you enjoy it for its sensitivity, or you are just ONE-Minded!

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

just a penny thought

The elaborate details of the Qing Dynasty¿s court life and etiquette made this book extremely enjoyable as I have been very interested in this particular dynasty since I was young. Moreover, this book was written in the form of Cixi¿s autobiography, making it even more intriguing as you can imagine yourself to be in her shoes and think the same thoughts as she did. However, there are some inaccurate historical details in this book that left me quite fustrated such as how Lin Zhe Xu destroyed opium after the Opium Wars. In Anchee Min¿s book, he set fire to 20000 cases of opium and that the burning pit was as large as a lake. That is the most common misconception anyone can ever have about the Opium Wars. Commissioner Lin did not set fire to the opium cases, he in fact dissolved the opium into sea after chemically treating it with sulphur, etc such that it could no longer serve as an addicitve drug. That was the biggest sorepoint of the entire book.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Shoukd have been called Empress Indecision

I gave this book 3 stars because it did keep me entertained and was a fast read at the airport. However, many story lines were left without a conclusion - for example: I spanked the Emperor and now I would be punished - then nothing - was she punished? How? There are also some unjustified pseudo-passions that lead to nothing. An admirer risks getting sealed in the Emperor's grave while she is deciding whether to live or die. Really silly.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Empress Orchid--A Woman Trapped as a Royal

This is an interesting peek into the life of what it must have been like for a woman chosen as a concubine - or wife - of a Chinese Emperor. She has to bend with the whims of her husband, who is shared amongst as many partners as he pleases. She may not even be able to raise her own son, if she is not the #1 wife, designated as Empress.

Also a very intriguing historical read of the frustrations of the Chinese court and the inability of the emperor in the mid-1800s to stop the invasion economic control of foreigners into his own domain.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

enlightening!

entertaining and easy to read, great to learn more about imperial life in the XIX century China.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wow!

I didnt want it to end......

A disappointment

This book covers an interesting historical period in Chinese history, and I was fascinated by Min's description of the Forbidden City. Given all that she endured and accomplished, the main character should have been interesting, but instead her voice is very flat and her relationships with other characters remain one-dimensional. I skipped the last 40 pages or so - really didn't care what happened to the narrator.

great book Great book

Really enjoyed this amazing story

One of my favorites

If u like this read the twenty first wife

Interesting Historical Fiction

The descriptions of life in the Forbidden City from the point of view of a concubine are fascinating.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good read

Had me at the first chapter

Excellent

As+an+fan+of+historically+based+fiction+I+would+certainly+recommend+this+book.+The+author+does+a+great+job+of+painting+a+vivid+and+memorable+story.

The ascent to Royalty in China

A history lesson of China. Gives a wonderful feel of the country itself.

Not realistic or true to history...tries to make Empress Cixi into an angel...

This book first of all is a highly glorified attempt to paint the Empress Orchid=Cixi in a favorable light making excuses for her crimes in history or covering them up. I would not by far count this as realistic in any way. It has been proven now that the Emperor Guang-Xsu was poisoned with arsenic by Empress Cixi, that she forced him into a marriage he did not like, and that she had drowned the woman he did love. In the book all of this is glazed over ...it is so unrealistic. Another thing is Empress Cian or Neharoo was a well love Empress who was poisoned by Cixi so she could take over full power behind the empire. In the book Anchee minn paints EMpress Cian as an idiot/air head who has no clue over politics and she dies of the flu. Sorry Anchee Minn you can't distort history in order to make your main character appealing and have a happy ending. I would not recommend this hogwash...!

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Excellent look into chinese sociology!

This is a vibrant fascinating historical fiction tale of China's last Empress. The story line is over-loaded with so much detail that fans who appreciate intrinsic depth into a bygone era will want to read the EMPRESS ORCHID. However, the profundity of each elaborate description of court life and the Forbidden City in the late 1800s also tends to slow down the action in which intrigue and executions are the norm. Those who enjoy historical sociology as the prime theme will cherish Anchee Min's tale, but those who want to swim in the shark infested pool will find this first person account too slow.

Holds you spellbound!

I love to read a book that transports you into the story. This book does that beautifully. I was no longer in my humble home in south east Texas, I was walking in lavish gardens and gilded halls of the Forbidden City. Anchee Min holds her readers captive from the first page to the last. I never wanted this book to end. One of my new favorites.

Loved this book

Amazing! Anchee Min has captured the soul of Imperialist China. I was lost in a China that was both picturesque and dim. The contrast of the pageantry of the Forbidden City to the sadness and loneliness of it inhabitants is magnificently woven in the tapestry of this story.

Great from start to finish

Min writes beautifully. Her descriptions of life in the Forbidden City are heart wrenching, gorgeous, and humorous. After reading Empress Orchid I ran out and bought her other two books. All which are great!

Flows like a dream!

This book is written like a fairytale and the words just flow off the pages. It's a wonderful novel that I would recommend anyone who's looking for a good book to curl up with on a lazy Sunday morning!

ADDICTIVE...

I couldn't find myself to part with the book. I really felt as if I was looking through the eyes of Yehonala and experiencing what she went through. It's like a good soap opera that you never want to see end. Beautifully written, detailed descriptions, and really knows how to pull the reader in.