Book description
It is the final days of the Chinese empire. Trade in opium with
Europe is slowly corroding the power of the Ch'ing Dynasty. Orchid, a
beautiful seventeen-year-old from an aristocratic but impoverished
family, is pushed into the maelstrom when she finds herself
unexpectedly chosen to become a lower-ranking concubine of the
Emperor.
The world inside the Forbidden City is erotically charged and highly
ritualised, but beneath its immaculate face lie whispers of murders
and ghosts. The thousands of concubines will go to any lengths to bear
the Emperor a son and become his Empress. Determined not to be a
victim of the jealousies and foul play, Orchid trains herself in the
art of pleasuring a man, bribes her way into the royal bed and seduces
the monarch. Little does she know that China will collapse around her,
and she will be its last Empress. EMPRESS ORCHID is the story of this
fascinating, strong-willed woman who for generations has been vilified
as a grand seductress and murderess. Anchee Min draws a vivid portrait
of a flawed yet utterly compelling woman and, through her life, the
world of the Chinese court and the sexual and political lives of the
royal concubines.
Richly detailed and completely gripping, this is a novel of high
drama and lyricism from the acclaimed author of Becoming Madame Mao
and Red Azalea.
Anchee Min was born in Shanghai in 1957. At seventeen she was sent
to a labour collective, where a talent scout for Madame Mao's Shanghai
Film Studio recruited her to work as a movie actress. She came to the
United States in 1984.
Her memoir, RED AZALEA was an international best-seller, with rights
sold in twenty countries. Her novels, BECOMING MADAME MAO, KATHERINE
and WILD GINGER were published to wonderful reviews and impressive
foreign sales.
