Scan barcode
Reviews
The Dragon Empress: Life and Times of Tz'u-Hsi, Empress Dowager of China, 1835-1908 by Marina Warner
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
4.0
Well this woman sounds like the mother-in-law from He double hockey sticks.
And I think that's why I liked this book. Too often, writers try to rescue people from the history that springs up around them. In some cases (perhaps in many cases) this is called for, but sometimes people were just not nice. Warner does seem to find Tz'u-Hsi to be a fasnicating and intersting woman, and Warner does not apolgize for her. While Warner does dismiss some of the rumors (and considering Warner is a Westerner who doesn't speak Chinese and is writing in the 1970s, this is pretty good), she doesn't dress the Emperess as a saint highly maligned. It is a rather intersting read with some scary pictures of nails and feet.
And I think that's why I liked this book. Too often, writers try to rescue people from the history that springs up around them. In some cases (perhaps in many cases) this is called for, but sometimes people were just not nice. Warner does seem to find Tz'u-Hsi to be a fasnicating and intersting woman, and Warner does not apolgize for her. While Warner does dismiss some of the rumors (and considering Warner is a Westerner who doesn't speak Chinese and is writing in the 1970s, this is pretty good), she doesn't dress the Emperess as a saint highly maligned. It is a rather intersting read with some scary pictures of nails and feet.
More...