My Splendid Concubine

By Lloyd Lofthouse

No Westerner has ever achieved Robert Hart's status and level of power in China. Driven by a passion for his adopted country, Hart became the ?godfather of China's modernism,? inspector general of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0981955304
• ISBN13: 9780981955308
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Three Clover Press
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A Fascinating Trip Into A Lost World

A fascinating trip into a lost world, Lofthouse does a great job taking us back in time to a beautiful, almost mythical China. But Lofthouse doesn't shy away from balancing the romantic with the reality. We are not spared the poverty, violence, colonial or sexual exploitation. His protagonist, Robert Hart, is an engaging character, caught between the morals of his religious Irish background, and his unquenchable thirst to understand the ancient Chinese culture. Sometimes it's hard to understand how he can withstand the seduction of the women who fall his way (the rest of us are only human), while one cannot fail to admire his prowess in battle and his moral fiber when he stands up to evil. It is hard to believe that this is a fictional account of a very real man and a very real story, and this makes the ending all the harder. Without giving anything away, the final scenes of the book haunted me for days after I finished. If anything is frustrating, it is that the reader is left feeling the story is incomplete. This can only be rectified with a sequel. Robert Hart needs to continue along his path, and I for one am anxious to follow his progress. Alon Shalev

A Trip Back in Time

"My Spendid Concubine" is a fascinating read that transports the reader back to a time almost incomprehensible to inhabitants of the 21st Century. As an avid reader of historical material, Robert Hart opened doors to places I was unfamiliar with and gave me a sense of being there with him. I have a basic understanding of ancient China, but knew very litle about the every-day lives of its' people from recent generations. Mr Lofthouse has provided us with a valuable and very entertaining resource and I was sad to reach the last page. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the next chapter in Robert Hart's life. As host of authorswebtv.com, I've interviewed Mr. Lofthouse, am looking forward to a follow up for the forthcoming "Our Hart."

Compelling Period Piece Took Me To Another World

Lloyd Lofthouse's "My Splendid Concubine" is a revelation. Reading it, I was transported to 19th century China and the alluring love story of Robert Hart and his concubine, Ayaou. Rich in detail, lovingly documented by Mr. Lofthouse, the story ranks with the highest order of romance/adventure writing. I got caught up in the narrative, and felt like I was accompanying Hart on his journey. I could not, and did not want to, return home until the book's last page. Tim Fleming author, "Murder Of An American Nazi"

Splendid only begins to describe this book

It was strange and wonderful time. It was a time of new and a time of old. For Robert hart it was an escape from his life and familial disgrace into a new beginning of which he could have never conceived. Born and raised in Ireland and practicing a lifestyle of abandon and irresponsibility, Robert Hart accepted a position in China with the British Customs Service in order to escape the shame he brought upon his family. Once in China he vowed that he would live a chaste and pure life. This he struggled to do until he met Ayaou. He had seen many foreigners in China take local women as concubines and looked down upon them as whoremongers not worthy of his respect. The passion evoked in him by Ayaou made him question his vow and he determined to learn as much as he could about this expansive land of China which has a culture many, many centuries older than that of Europe. He did so to learn to accept Ayaou's love and return it honestly and completely. In his quest he met mercenaries and smugglers and teachers and poets. Follow along with him as he experiences and grows into a new life in this little known chapter of a man who was in every respect one of the fathers of Chinese modernization. Lloyd Lofthouse has crafted a novel that tells an intriguing and amazing tale of a man's life that is objective and yet compelling. It is evident in the detail and touching honesty from both Hart's perspective and that of the Chinese who touch his life that Mr. Lofthouse has a great of understanding the unique nature of human cultures and the clashes that arise when East meets West. In addition the historical depictions and vivid descriptions of the settings make this a book of most impressive stature. The only flaw, and it is minor, is that the reader is left with some questions as to the future. One hopes that this is a hint at a sequel as there is undoubtedly much more to be told of Robert Hart and his journeys of growth and accomplishment. Reviewer: John Helman, Allbooks Reviews.

A Victorian Gentleman in Nineteenth Century China

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. 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 fa