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Liked It “Lloyd Lofthouse shares a little known, but powerful, story about an Englisnman whose impact on the Chinese during the Opium Wars was tremendous. This is a must read for anyone interested in Chinese history.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Lloyd Lofthouse shares a little known, but powerful, story about an Englisnman whose impact on the Chinese during the Opium Wars was tremendous. This is a must read for anyone interested in Chinese history.”
Linda T wrote this review Friday, May 8 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“It is in the natural order of literature that famed authoress Anchee Min's (Red Azalea; Becoming Madame Mao) significant other, Lloyd Lofthouse, is the latest author to join the ranks of China historical fiction writers with his highly-anticipated debut novel, My Splendid Concubine, which traces the true-life exploits of Sir Robert Hart.
~China Photojournalist Tom Carter~ wrote this review Friday, July 11 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Lofthouse's Hart is not the idol that encyclopedias portray him as; he is a flawed man. Enticed into purchasing his first concubine, boat-girl Ayaou, Hart is at once disgusted and stirred by the thought of "taking bids on her virginity," but admits to himself that "it bothered him more that he found the idea tempting."
Regardless of the novel's title, Ayaou is not Sir Robert Hart's "concubine." For all intents and purposes, she is stolen property liberated by Hart from a rival. Hart's true splendid concubine is in fact Ayaou's little sister. Only fourteen years old, the blossoming Shao-mei is admittedly even more desirable than Ayaou. "I'm not a finished woman, but I am a woman." She slid her hands down the length of her nude torso to her vulva..."
My Splendid Concubine is rife with the sexual dalliances of a white man adrift in China ("What a strange night, a strange place and strange girls"). Lofthouse also plaits his page-turning story with amusing cultural anecdotes that surely must have come from the author's personal observations of China ("Live here long enough, see crazy things").
Lloyd Lofthouse is to be commended for writing a novel that so cleverly balances an engaging tale of culture and romance with a wealth of period detail that will educate readers about dynastic China as thoroughly as any university textbook.
Though a "moral hero" in China, My Splendid Concubine depicts another half of Sir Robert Hart: the dark half. Conscious that historical fiction readers demand potboilers over academic fare, Lofthouse plays on Hart's notoriety, and obviously has fun while doing it.
But behind the scandalous, revisionist adventures My Splendid Concubine is a comprehensible and remarkably accurate narrative history of real-life man whom the author quite obviously admires.”
“I really loved this book. What a treat. My Splendid Concubine is based on rue events by a man called Sir Robert Hart. He was like the only westeners that the Chineses trusted. Mr. Lofthouse is a very knowledgeable man and it took him about 9 years to get this book completed but it was worth it as it turned out great”
Cheryl wrote this review Thursday, May 29 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“My Splendid Concubine is the story of Sir Robert Hart, a nineteenth century British consular and customs official who, over several decades, grew into a position of unprecedented respect and trust in China.
Dianne Salerni wrote this review Thursday, April 3 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The story opens in 1908 with the Empress Dowager granting an audience in the Forbidden City to an elderly Hart, Inspector General of Chinese Maritime Customs, but the novel is really about Hart’s early days in China as a young interpreter.
Hart travels to China in 1854 seeking to redeem himself after a shameful episode of wenching and carousing at college that embarrassed his family. He first meets Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, who advises him to study everything around him in an effort to understand the Chinese and learn something new everyday. This is the only advice of its kind he receives from his own people, for Hart discovers that the rest of the Westerners view the Chinese culture with disdain and superiority. His first employer, for example, chastises him for trying to learn Mandarin, saying, “It is their place to understand us. We don’t have to understand them.”
While most of the British and American officials dismiss the Chinese as superstitious heathens, there is one part of the Chinese culture they are quick to assimilate: the taking of concubines. Hart finds it repugnantly hypocritical that his fellow countrymen should hold so little respect for the culture while indulging their own desires in a manner that Victorian society would condemn. He notes that, “on one hand the Europeans and British were shoving Christianity’s message of brotherly love down the Chinese collective throat with the barrel of a rifle. At the same time foreign merchants, mostly British, were selling opium to the populace.” Hart hopes to rise above such prejudice and lack of ethics, but finds himself sorely tempted by repeated opportunities to sample a service that the Chinese take for granted and the Westerners are perfectly happy to exploit.
And then Hart meets Ayaou, a fiery and courageous girl from the lowest sector of Chinese society, the boat people. Their startling and memorable introduction – which I will not reveal here – sparks a passion that takes the young Englishman by storm. Hart is willing to bankrupt himself to buy Ayaou from her father, who is selling her to provide for the rest of his family, but circumstances whisk her away and Hart finds himself compelled to buy her sister, rather than let the younger girl fall into undesirable hands.
Suddenly Hart owns a concubine, although not the woman he loves, and he is caught between his own Christian beliefs and the worshipful attention of young Shao-mei, who desperately wants to earn the love of her master. And what of Ayaou, who has been sold to the violent and unstable American mercenary soldier Frederick Townsend Ward? What ethics will Hart be willing to compromise in order to get her back?
Lloyd Lofthouse has created a rich cast of characters against the exotic and fascinating backdrop of nineteenth century China. Young Robert Hart is a sympathetic character who earnestly seeks to understand the Chinese culture in order to win acceptance there, and to find peace within his own soul. As Hart learns, so does the reader, for the author has skillfully woven lessons of the Chinese culture into the plot and setting. The girls, Ayaou and Shao-mei, are individually defined as characters and truly believable as sisters: sensually mature, playfully young, one moment presenting a united sisterly front, and the next moment squabbling with jealousy. And I have not even touched upon the pirates, the mercenaries, the opium dealers, and Hart’s philosophizing eunuch servant. Don’t pass up this debut novel by an author who will surely continue Robert Hart’s saga and legendary career in a second novel.
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