The Dragon Empress: Life and Times of Tz'u-hsi 1835-1908 Empress Dowager of China

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Marina Warner

The Dragon Empress

Life and Times of Tz'u-hsi 1835-1908 Empress Dowager of China

Marina Warner

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English

Vintage
07 December 1993

Biography: historical, political & military; Biography: royalty; Asian history; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; Genealogy, heraldry, names & honours

From 1861 to 1908 a woman, the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi, born the daughter of a minor mandarin, held the supreme power in China. Opportunistic, ruthless, malicious, she ruled over four hundred million people. Marina Warner's biography lays bare her complex personality- her extreme conventionalism; her hatred of ""foreigners""; her passion for power and intrigue; her vanity and her delight in ritual; her extravagance and corruption and her love of gardens, painting and the theatre. THE DRAGON EMPRESS also portrays a China in rapid decline as poverty, civil war and foreign exploitation and invasion brought about the fall of the Ch'ing dynasty.

By: Marina Warner
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 193g
ISBN: 9780099165910
ISBN 10: 0099165910
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 07 December 1993
Recommended Age: From 0 years
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Marina Warner was born in London of an Italian mother and an English father. Her history and criticism has focused mainly on female symbolism - Alone of All Her Sex- the Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary; Joan of Arc- the Image of Female Heroism; Monuments and Maidens- the Allegory of the Female Form - and is currently finishing a study of fairytale, called From The Beast to The Blonde. She has also written novels. The Lost Father was a Regional Winner of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize and winner of the Macmillan Silver P.E.N Award. She has recently published The Mermaids in the Basement her first collection of short stories. She lives in London with her husband, the artist John Dewe Mathews, and one son.

Reviews for The Dragon Empress: Life and Times of Tz'u-hsi 1835-1908 Empress Dowager of China

Warner published this book in 1972 and it was her first biography, although she had written other works of fiction. Its subject - a wicked woman in power - intrigued 1970s readers who were searching for models of female authority. Reprinted in 1993 by Vintage, it rejoins the tradition that was picked up by Chinese writers such as Jung Chang in the book Wild Swans. In a foreword, Warner criticizes a later 'revisionist' biography which depicts Tzu'u-Hsi as 'a nice, dull thing who knows nothing of scheming'. Her own Empress is malicious, vain, corrupt and extreme, rising from humble beginnings as the daughter of a mediocre official in Peking up to the highest office in the land, where she ruled over 400 people. Warner tells the story of her subjects's elite Manchu heritage and childhood, and a turnaround in fortune which came when both Tz'u-Hsi and her sister were plucked from obscurity to become concubines in the new young emperor's harem. The storytelling is detailed and stylish, vividly bringing a distany dynasty to life. (Kirkus UK)