villadaa.blogg.se - Empress orchid book review

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Horoscope for Monday, 6/05/23 by Christopher Renstrom.

Upon Nuharoo's early death, Orchid takes control of the royal court, for which history will revile her as a symbol of power gone awry. Min's sequel, "The Last Empress," opens with the widowed Orchid, now co-regent with her rival, Empress Nuharoo, to Orchid's son, Tung Chih, who is too young to ascend the throne. When Orchid, or Lady Yehonala, as she is initially titled, gives birth to the only heir, she becomes the Empress Tzu Hsi, or Empress Orchid, the final empress of the Ch'ing Dynasty.

Elated to have been chosen - and driven to get royally noticed - Orchid embarks on her new life in the legendary Forbidden City through a side gate, because only the chief wife, Nuharoo, can pass through the main entrance. Min's "Empress Orchid" (2004) introduced a naive but determined teenage girl from a poor province, selected to be one of three imperial concubines (not to be confused with the lowly 3,000 others His Highness keeps in the palace, just in case).

"Although I had every luxury and my duties were often rewarding, Imperial glory also meant loneliness and living in constant fear of rebellion and assassination," according to the title character in Anchee Min's latest book, "The Last Empress." And let's not forget the basics that were also "taken away": "the freedom to wander, the right to love, and most of all, the right to be myself." High prices to pay for a life in a sequestered palace, only to go down in history as a "mastermind of pure evil and intrigue," as cited in one of numerous quotes Min offers on the book's opening page.īut Min means to set the record straight - albeit in historical novel form - reclaiming the eponymous empress of 19th century China with a double-volume revisionist account of her much-maligned life. Any way you look at it, royal life is hell.