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they had was like a fantasy, and he wondered when it would dissolve"), which lends to the uncomfortable sense of anxiety felt throughout the book, ominously hanging over the reader like a dark cloud, as would any illicit affair cheating can't possibly have a happy ending, especially in the lawlessness of 19th century China.

Hart's true splendid concubine, bought and paid for with opium-tainted Chinese RMB, is in fact Ayaou's little sister, a pubescent firecracker named Shao-mei. Hart gallantly purchases Shao-mei to spare her from the talons of his fellow foreigners. Only fourteen years old, the blossoming Shao-mei is admittedly even more desirable to the insatiable Brit than Ayaou, but Hart is intent on staying faithful to the woman who "fought her way into his heart."

Curious of the pleasures she hears through the wall at night, the jealous younger sister Shao-mei attempts to seduce Hart at every turn: "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"If you aren't pleased because I don't have full breasts yet, I promise that they'll grow to the size of tomatoes in a few months. I'm not lying. See, these nipples were not like this a few weeks ago." She fondled a nipple and it hardened and stood at attention."

While the China around him is literally on fire with opium wars and Taping rebellions, Sir Robert Hart is on the front lines of his own private "battle of the flesh." Adding to Hart's bittersweet frustrations, Ayaou uses Chinese logic to try to persuade him into enjoying her juvenile sister, so that the three can live together in harmony: "If I am your happiness, by having her you will achieve double happiness." It is arguably every man's fantasy, but Hart's Wesleyan beliefs, and fear of sibling rivalry, prohibit him from indulging in the sisterly threesome.

"Your passion is like an ocean," Ayaou admits to Hart one night after he refuses to enter Shao-mei ('s chamber). "Why not spare a little of that for my sister? It is all she is asking for. Would you acknowledge that I sometimes can't keep up with you? You want me three times a night, and sometimes that is not enough. Why can't you let Shao-mei take some pressure off me?"

-FUN WITH NOTORIETY-

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"), and will undoubtedly appeal to the backpacker set looking for a good read during those long train rides from

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