The dragon empress : life and times of Tz'u-hsi, 1835-1908, Empress dowager of China
1972, History Book Club Edition. London : History Book Club. Fine cloth copy in a near-fine, very slightly edge-nicked and dust-dulled dw, now mylar-sleeved. Remains particularly and surprisingly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 281 pages; Physical description: 271p. : ill. (some col), maps, plans, ports. (some col) ; 26cm. Subjects: Ci xi, Empress Dowager of China, 1835-1908 -- Biography -- China -- Social life -- History -- 19th century -- Early 20th century. Summary: 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. Item #204790
Price: €23.95