by Pearl S. Buck
My friend sent me this book without warning. She thought I might like it, and she was right. Imperial Woman was a fascinating story of the Chinese Dowager Empress Cixi, or Tsu-Hsi as she's called in the book. Cixi joins the court of the Emperor as a concubine and manages to become the main influe...
Good and evil mingled in her, but always in heroic dimensions. 3.5 stars. This is the story of Empress Tzu-hsi, who ruled the Manchu dynasty in China for 47 years. In 1852 she was selected as a concubine for the Emperor. She was extremely strong-willed and decided that she would become the Emperor's...
Read this as a teenager after The Good Earth, and found it fascinating. The scene in which she is chosen as a concubine is still clear in my head 30 or so years after reading the book. Along with The Good Earth, this book is one that convinced me I had to see China.
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