Try free for 30 days
-
Imperial Woman
- The Story of the Last Empress of China
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $33.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
Peony
- A Novel of China
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Peony is sold into a rich Chinese household as a bondmaid - an awkward role in which she is more a servant, but less a daughter. As she grows into a lovely, provocative young woman, Peony falls in love with the family's only son. However, tradition forbids them to wed. How she resolves her love for him and her devotion to her adoptive family unfolds in this profound tale, based on true events in China over a century ago.
-
-
Peony
- By Anonymous User on 10-01-2022
-
Dragon Seed
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To the Chinese the dragon is not an evil creature, but is a god and the friend of men who worship him. He "holds in his power prosperity and peace." Ruling the waters and the winds, he sends the good rain, is hence the symbol of fecundity. In the Hsia dynasty two dragons fought a great duel until both disappeared, leaving only a fertile foam from which were born the descendants of the Hsia. Thus, the dragons came to be looked upon as the ancestors of a race of heroes. This is the story of China at War.
-
The Locksmith's Daughter
- By: Karen Brooks
- Narrated by: Karen Brooks
- Length: 22 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if the key to your heart lies in your enemy's hands? In a world where no one can be trusted and secrets are currency, one woman stands without fear. Mallory Bright is the only daughter of London's master locksmith. For her there is no lock too elaborate, no secret too well kept. Sir Francis Walsingham, spymaster and protector of Queen Elizabeth - the last of the Tudor monarchs - and her realm, is quick to realise Mallory's talent and draws her into his world of intrigue, danger and deception.
-
-
Unstoppable
- By Judith O'Doherty on 19-09-2018
-
Beware the Past
- By: Joy Ellis
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Matt Ballard was starting out his career, three boys were murdered in the same area, the remote and bleak Gibbet Fen. When the main suspect was killed in a hit-and-run, the killings stopped. But Matt was not satisfied that the real murderer had been caught. Over 25 years later, Matt gets a photo in an unmarked envelope. It's of the Gibbet Fen crime scene. And the picture was taken before the murder took place. More photos arrive, relating to the historic murders, as well as intimate pictures of Matt's very secret private life.
-
-
couldn't finish because of performance 🤨
- By peter cousens on 20-07-2018
-
Pavilion of Women
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On her 40th birthday, Madame Wu carries out a decision she has been planning for a long time: she tells her husband that after 24 years their physical life together is now over and she wishes him to take a second wife. The House of Wu, one of the oldest and most revered in China, is thrown into an uproar by her decision, but Madame Wu will not be dissuaded and arranges for a young country girl to come take her place in bed.
-
Fields of Gold
- By: Fiona McIntosh
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping story of love and rivalry from the internationally best-selling author of The Lavender Keeper. Charismatic womaniser Jack Bryant has the world at his feet, but when trouble catches up with him he's forced to flee Penzance for good. Honest Ned Sinclair is on a family adventure in Rangoon when he is dealt a bitter blow. With all the odds against him, he risks his life in a desperate bid to escape. Both men hope to start their lives anew, seeking their fortune in India's fields of gold.
-
-
One of her best
- By Paddington on 23-03-2019
-
Peony
- A Novel of China
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Peony is sold into a rich Chinese household as a bondmaid - an awkward role in which she is more a servant, but less a daughter. As she grows into a lovely, provocative young woman, Peony falls in love with the family's only son. However, tradition forbids them to wed. How she resolves her love for him and her devotion to her adoptive family unfolds in this profound tale, based on true events in China over a century ago.
-
-
Peony
- By Anonymous User on 10-01-2022
-
Dragon Seed
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To the Chinese the dragon is not an evil creature, but is a god and the friend of men who worship him. He "holds in his power prosperity and peace." Ruling the waters and the winds, he sends the good rain, is hence the symbol of fecundity. In the Hsia dynasty two dragons fought a great duel until both disappeared, leaving only a fertile foam from which were born the descendants of the Hsia. Thus, the dragons came to be looked upon as the ancestors of a race of heroes. This is the story of China at War.
-
The Locksmith's Daughter
- By: Karen Brooks
- Narrated by: Karen Brooks
- Length: 22 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if the key to your heart lies in your enemy's hands? In a world where no one can be trusted and secrets are currency, one woman stands without fear. Mallory Bright is the only daughter of London's master locksmith. For her there is no lock too elaborate, no secret too well kept. Sir Francis Walsingham, spymaster and protector of Queen Elizabeth - the last of the Tudor monarchs - and her realm, is quick to realise Mallory's talent and draws her into his world of intrigue, danger and deception.
-
-
Unstoppable
- By Judith O'Doherty on 19-09-2018
-
Beware the Past
- By: Joy Ellis
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Matt Ballard was starting out his career, three boys were murdered in the same area, the remote and bleak Gibbet Fen. When the main suspect was killed in a hit-and-run, the killings stopped. But Matt was not satisfied that the real murderer had been caught. Over 25 years later, Matt gets a photo in an unmarked envelope. It's of the Gibbet Fen crime scene. And the picture was taken before the murder took place. More photos arrive, relating to the historic murders, as well as intimate pictures of Matt's very secret private life.
-
-
couldn't finish because of performance 🤨
- By peter cousens on 20-07-2018
-
Pavilion of Women
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On her 40th birthday, Madame Wu carries out a decision she has been planning for a long time: she tells her husband that after 24 years their physical life together is now over and she wishes him to take a second wife. The House of Wu, one of the oldest and most revered in China, is thrown into an uproar by her decision, but Madame Wu will not be dissuaded and arranges for a young country girl to come take her place in bed.
-
Fields of Gold
- By: Fiona McIntosh
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping story of love and rivalry from the internationally best-selling author of The Lavender Keeper. Charismatic womaniser Jack Bryant has the world at his feet, but when trouble catches up with him he's forced to flee Penzance for good. Honest Ned Sinclair is on a family adventure in Rangoon when he is dealt a bitter blow. With all the odds against him, he risks his life in a desperate bid to escape. Both men hope to start their lives anew, seeking their fortune in India's fields of gold.
-
-
One of her best
- By Paddington on 23-03-2019
-
The Memory Keeper of Kyiv
- By: Erin Litteken
- Narrated by: Katherine Fenton
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1929, Katya is 16 years old, surrounded by family and in love with the boy next door. When Stalin’s activists arrive in her village, it’s just a few, a little pressure to join the collective. But soon neighbors disappear, those who speak out are never seen again and every new day is uncertain. Resistance has a price, and as desperate hunger grips the countryside, survival seems more a dream than a possibility. But, even in the darkest times, love beckons. Seventy years later, a young widow discovers her grandmother’s journal.
-
-
Powerful story
- By Anonymous User on 14-08-2023
-
The Convict's Wife
- By: Libby Ashworth
- Narrated by: Katy Sobey
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Molly Holden’s husband, Thomas, is convicted of being a Luddite on the word of a secret informer, he is sentenced to be transported to Australia. Left with their baby daughter, Molly must find work to survive. But the man who informed on Thomas is a former suitor of Molly’s, and Isaac believes that with Thomas out of the way she will return to him....
-
No Names to Be Given
- By: Julia Brewer Daily
- Narrated by: Reagan Boggs
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When three young unwed women meet at a maternity home hospital in New Orleans in 1965, they are expected to relinquish their babies and return home as if nothing transpired. Twenty-five years later, they are brought back together by blackmail and their secrets threatened with exposure - all the way to the White House.
-
Adventures of a Countryside Doctor
- Memoirs of a Doctor in a Remote Village in South India (An Adventurous Life)
- By: Dr. Thomas T Thomas
- Narrated by: John Riddle
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sally, a beautiful young pregnant woman, came to the hospital supposedly for pre-term labor pains but delivered a fully mature, healthy boy. Her face, smiling with relief after the stress of delivery, quickly changed to apprehension. “Doctor, what will you tell my husband and family? Can you please tell them that the baby is premature?” She asked. “How can I?” Dr. Thomas replied helplessly. “The baby is fully grown and mature, as anyone can see.”
-
Elizabeth's Star
- We'll Meet Again, Book 1
- By: Rhonda Forrest
- Narrated by: Casey Withoos
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1941, Queensland drover Michael McTavish leaves behind his young daughter Gracie and joins the 2/22 AIF, his destination, Rabaul, New Guinea, a small town surrounded by impenetrable jungles and steep jagged mountains, its shores lined by tranquil bays and active volcanos. Joanie has also arrived in New Guinea, with a chance to manage a trading store with her father, Reg, too exciting an opportunity to pass up.
-
Queenie
- By: Kimberley Chambers
- Narrated by: Annie Aldington
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whitechapel in the 1930s was not an easy place to be brought up, and when the war came, those with nothing were hit the hardest. Queenie watched her family struggle and learned her lessons the hard way. When she was a little girl, there was one thing Queenie knew - she was going to get out of this.... And then tall, dark and handsome Alfie Butler walks into her life and gives Queenie her ticket out. One rushed wedding later, the real trouble begins. As the Krays make their mark on the East End, Queenie realises what it takes for an East End girl to really succeed.
-
Coconut
- A Black Girl Fostered by a White Family in the 1960s and Her Search for Belonging and Identity
- By: Florence Ọlájídé
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1963, North London. Nan fosters one-year-old Florence Olajide and calls her "Ann". Florence adores her foster mother more than anything but Nan, and the children around her, all have white skin, and she can’t help but feel different. Then, four years later, after a weekend visit to her birth parents, Florence never returns to Nan. Two months after, sandwiched between her mother and father plus her three siblings, six-year-old Florence steps off a ship in Lagos to the fierce heat of the African sun.
-
-
A Beautiful True Story
- By Taldree on 14-11-2022
-
Hannah's Voice
- By: Robb Grindstaff
- Narrated by: Karen Rose Richter
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hidden in protective foster care for 12 years, Hannah loses all contact with her mother and remains mute by choice. When she leaves foster care at age 18 to search for her momma, a national debate rages over her silence. One word would put an end to the chaos...if only Hannah can find her voice.
-
The Age of Dreaming
- A Novel
- By: Nina Revoyr
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jun Nakayama was a silent-film star in the early days of Hollywood. By 1964, he is living in complete obscurity, until a young writer, Nick Bellinger, tracks him down for an interview. When Bellinger reveals that he has written a screenplay with Nakayama in mind, Jun is intrigued by the possibility of returning to movies. But he begins to worry that someone might delve too deeply into the past and uncover the events that abruptly ended his career in 1922. Like the changing social and racial tides in California - and the unsolved murder of his favorite director.
-
-
Interesting read, be patient in the first half
- By Sandra Hoffmann on 27-05-2022
-
The Glassmaker's Daughter
- By: Donna Russo Morin
- Narrated by: Megan Huggins
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between creating precious glass parts for one Professore Galileo Galilei’s astonishing invention and attending lavish parties at the Doge’s Palace, Sophia crosses paths with influential people, including one who could change her life forever. But in Venice, every secret has its price. Soon, Sophia must decide how much she is willing to pay for her family, the glass, and love.
-
The Train Jumper
- By: Gwen Banta
- Narrated by: Kaleigh Kirby
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1958, 19-year-old Kat Caswell loses her best friend in a brutal accident. In an attempt to flee from her past, she hops a freight train, leaving rural Indiana behind. Kat soon discovers that the extreme danger of train jumping is a welcome distraction from her pain.
-
The Witch's Tree
- By: Elena Collins
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Present day. As a love affair comes to an end, and with it her dreams for her future, artist Selena needs a retreat. The picture-postcard Sloe Cottage in the Somerset village of Ashcombe promises to be the perfect place to forget her problems, and Selena settles into her new home as spring arrives. 1682: Grace Cotter longs for nothing more than a husband and family of her own. Separated by three hundred years, two women are drawn together by a home bathed in blood and magic.
Publisher's Summary
The story of Tzu Hsi is the story of the last empress in China. In this audiobook, Pearl S. Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rulers during a time of intense turbulence.
Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of 17 to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort. Tzu Hsi was feared and hated by many in the court, but adored by the people. The Empress’s rise to power (even during her husband’s life) parallels the story of China’s transition from the ancient to the modern way.
Pearl S. Buck’s knowledge of and fascination with the empress’s life are contagious. She reveals the essence of this self-involved and infamous last empress, at the same time she takes the listener through China’s struggle for freedom and democracy.
More from the same
What listeners say about Imperial Woman
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- alison
- 04-06-2015
Beautiful, loved it
I was so drawn in to the story and life within the Imperial Palace that I was quite at a loss when the book finished. I loved my daily visits to the Empress. Buck's beautiful descriptions of the robes, palace, gardens and even the food painted such vivid pictures it was almost like being there. It may not be historically acurate, but it gave a pretty good indication of what life was like then and afterall if you want factual history you can always read a text book.
I loved everything about this book, the way it was written, the characters and the story itself. Kirsten Potter's excellent narration only helped to increase my enjoyment of the book.
This was my second Pearl S. Buck book, my first being Peony, and I was not disappointed. I look forward to discovering more of her books.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful