Imperial Woman - A Novel

New York: The John Day Company, 1956. Book Club Edition . Hard Back. Very Good/Good. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2. 402 Pages. When Pearl S. Buck finished writing her autobiographical work, My Several Worlds, she found that the most vivid character memory of her childhood life was Tzu Hsi, the last Empress of China. This is the woman usually known to Westerners as the Empress Dowager, or "Old Buddha." But how little the West really knows of her! She has figured in an occasional book, but never before in English, nor indeed in any language so far as we know, has the whole story of this fabulous woman been told. She ranks in history with Victoria of England and Catherine of Russia. Indeed, Tzu Hsi liked to think of Victoria as her sister-ruler and often remarked that they divided the world between them, Victoria the Empress of the West and she the Empress of the East. Of the two, however, Tzu Hsi had the more romantic and extraordinary reign. She was born into violent and troubled times, in the last century of China's empire. Already the West was compelling that ancient and impregnable country to face the modem age. Slow to change, entrenched in pride and tradition, the ruling dynasty of the Manchus was reluctant to realize the portent of the times. It was Tzu Hsi, this powerful and beautiful woman, who held the empire and the dynasty from the 1860's until her death in 1908 at the age of 74.