by Tom Carter

Created on: July 07, 2008   Last Updated: July 09, 2008

The Lustful Life of Sir Robert Hart:
Or, Prurience & Violence in 19th Century China
A Critical Review of Lloyd Lofthouse's "My Splendid Concubine"

Fans of historical fiction literature might be astonished to realize that in author James Michener's vast catalog of titles, not one of his 40+ best-sellers takes place in China. Despite the wandering scribbler's voracious appetite for geography and history, and claiming "the world is my home," apparently the 9.5 million sq. km., 5,000 year-old China was a bit much for the late Michener to take on in his twilight years.

Whether this is due to China's notorious cultural and geographical inaccessibility or simply a lack of wherewithal by western authors to tackle such an immense subject, the fact remains that for all its wealth of material, China is one of the least written-about countries in fiction.

Two women, then, decidedly remain amongst the most influential authors of the diminutive China historical fiction genre. Pearl S. Buck, an American raised in early-1900's China, wrote the classic The Good Earth, and in doing so won a Nobel Prize and a Pulitzer. Alternatively, Shanghai-born Anchee Min grew up in Cultural Revolution-era P.R.C. before immigrating to the U.S. Using her own startling experiences as a Communist Red Guard for her autobiographical Red Azalea (which was summarily banned in her homeland), authoress Min went on to craft five best-selling historical fiction novels about China, including The Last Empress and the controversial Becoming Madam Mao.

It is in the natural order of things, then, that Anchee Min's significant other, Lloyd Lofthouse, is the latest author to join the ultra-elite ranks of China historical fiction writers with his highly-anticipated debut novel, My Splendid Concubine.

Sharpening his literary teeth behind the scenes for over a decade as his critically-acclaimed wife's off-the-books editor (a task too-often relegated to the spouses of writers), Lofthouse spent what little free time he had in between raising a family with Min and proofreading her novels to draft his own epic tale of imperial China. The result is arguably the genre's biggest sleeper hit to date.

-THE CHAOS DYNASTY-

Like most historical fiction novels which center on actual personalities and events, My Splendid Concubine traces the true-life exploits of Sir Robert Hart (1835-1911), the celebrated expatriate official credited for bringing China (kicking and screaming) out of the medieval ages and into the 20th century. So influential

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