The Last Empress (2) - Anchee Min

2007, second part of the novel that chronicles the period of activity of the Empress Tzu Hsi in the Forbidden City; the saga continues from the moment Lady Yehonala and her counterpart the Empress Nuharoo assume the power of the empire, until her passing at the age of 72.

The sequel describes the most tragic and political events in history, Orchid must endure her loved ones’ deaths and get on governing with the shrewdness and the skill of a juggler so the empire does not collapse.

Her son’s erratic behavior, his apathy towards Chinese people and their political conflicts, and to top it all, the total indifference toward his mother, sum up the most excruciating sufferings in Orchid’s life; not to mention that in return the Empress had to give up the love of her life.

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Empress Orchid (1) - Anchee Min

Published in 2004, this is the first part of the historical novel that tells the biography of the last Empress of China, since her teenage years when she moved in to the Forbidden City as one of the concubines of Emperor Hsien Feng, until she becomes one of the Widows Empresses of the throne.

This story recreates all the torments and vicissitudes that Lady Yehonala had to cope with in a fierce competition among 3000 concubines, (not to mention, seven imperial consorts, including Nuharoo the first Empress of China), to win the affection and the protection of the Emperor.

A rivalry caused by the desire to give a descendant to the throne (the heir to the empire) and the struggle to survive in a chaotic and risky environment ruled by extreme measures that led to execution to anyone who dared commit the slightest indiscretion.

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