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    The Courtesan
    The Courtesan
    The Courtesan
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Courtesan

    Written by Alexandra Curry

    Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    An astonishing debut novel inspired by the life of the legendary Qing dynasty courtesan, Sai Jinhua. The year is 1881, the era of Chinas humiliation at the hands of imperialist Europe. Seven-year-old Jinhua is left alone and unprotected, her life transformed after her mandarin fathers summary execution for the crime of speaking the truth. As an orphan, she endures the brutal logic of a brothel-keeper, who puts her to work as a so-called money tree, and she survives the worst of human nature with the friendship and wisdom of the crippled brothel maid. When an elegant but troubled scholar takes Jinhua as his concubine, she leaves both the trauma of brothel life and the comfort of friendship behind and encounters for the first time the tantalizing and elusive notion of ldquo;Great Love. She travels with her emissary husband to Europe and discovers there the mesmerizing strangeness, irresistible sensualities, and exotic possibilities of fin de si egravec le Vienna, while struggling against the constraints of tradition and her husbands wishes. Sai Jinhua is an altered woman when she returns to a changed and changing China, where a terrible clash of East and West is brewing, and where her western sympathies will ultimately threaten not only her own survival but the survival of those who are most dear to her. The Courtesan is a timeless tale of friendship and sacrifice, temptation and redemption; the story of a woman's journey to discern what is real and abiding, and a book that shines a small light on the large history of China's relations with the West.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateSep 8, 2015
    ISBN9781622319619
    The Courtesan

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    Reviews for The Courtesan

    3.5/5

    30 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This story takes place in the years before and right after the Boxer Rebellion. It is a work of historical fiction and shows you the old ways of the China nation where girl children are only a commodity.
    • 3/5
      Book Review: The Courtesan by Alexandra Curry
      Released Sep 8 2015 by Dutton
      In 1881, seven-year-old Jinhua has enjoyed a fairly good life. Her father has refused to have her feet bound and has shown her nothing but love. Then he displeases the emperor and is beheaded.
      Jinhua's wife is not interested in caring for the daughter of her husband's mistress and sells the girl for a handful of silver coins. Jinhua ends up in a brothel where she is taught the "bed business" with poses like Fishes Eye to Eye, White Tiger Pouncing, and Silkworms Tenderly Entwined. But there is little tender about bed business, as she discovers when she is given to her first client at the age of twelve.
      She is told repeatedly that her life is not her own. When she is bought again by a man who thinks she is the reincarnation of his former mistress, she accompanies him on his ambassadorial trips to the West.
      I had such hopes for this novel. I requested an ARC from the publisher because the synopsis described a woman’s journey from culture to culture and eventually to herself. Although she does eventually lead her own life, she does so by returning to the brothel after the owner dies and the business passes on to her best friend. There she is raped during the Boxer revolution, her friend is also violated, and her friend gives up her life to save Jinhua’s. So she doesn’t really ever own her own life.
      This I could have lived with if the writing had been stronger. The publisher described a fairytale like prose that promised a depth that rewarded a careful reader…exactly the kind of thing I enjoy, and exactly the kind of prose that can fit exceptionally well with historical fiction.
      But here the execution is weak. The prose is too spare, and the details tend to be repeated. The repetition does not highlight symbolic or important elements, so it comes off as a weakness in the author’s research.
      I’m begrudgingly rating this at 3 stars because, although I would normally rank this as a 2 or 2.5, I recognize that a number of readers will enjoy this a great deal. Just be aware of the flaws before you spend time with this work.
      3 begrudging stars.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of Sai Jinhua, a legendary figure in China. The author admits that she has taken great liberty in this re-creation of her life, as many contradictory stories have been written and passed on about her. In this story, Jinhua herself often creates the legends about herself by spinning yarns about her past life, a past she wished she had had. She lived during a time of great turmoil and the author presents a picture of the history of China from 1891 until 1905 that places her squarely in the time frame.Jinhua was the child of Lao Mangzi’s second wife, his concubine. His first wife, Timu, stopped speaking from the time he brought her home until his death, so jealous and angry was she of her intrusion into their life. When the second wife died during childbirth, the first wife resented the child that was born. That child was Jinhua. Lao Mangzi adored her, however, as he had adored her mother, which made matters worse for the child.Lao Mangzi was the executioner in The Forbidden City. He did what the Emperor commanded. He had no other choice. Jinhua had beseeched him to disobey the Emperor and remain at home with her. She adored him and the stories he told her. One day, he did not return. The Emperor had accused Lao Mangzi of a crime for which the punishment was death. Soon, he was no longer the executioner, but instead was executed himself. Jinhua blamed herself for his death since she had asked him to question the Emperor's command. She wore the mark of that guilt around her neck for the rest of her life.Without her father, Jinhua’s happy life was suddenly in chaos and at an end. She was at the mercy of his first wife who had hated her since her birth, and as punishment for her existence, she sold her to a “go-between” who quickly sold her to a brothel. She was to be trained as a courtesan, although she was merely 7 years old at the time. Taught all of the skills of “bed business”, she became a “money tree” as soon as she was mature enough to bed the men. This occurred, according to Lao Mama, the owner of the brothel, shortly before her 13th birthday, before she actually “became a woman”. As far as the owner of the brothel was concerned, she was old enough. It was time for her to earn her keep. The men were allowed to do whatever they wished to the girls in the brothel, and they suffered from their brutality, without complaint, for they had no other choice. In the brothel, Jinhua made a very close “sister” friend. Her name was Suyin. Suyin guided her through the years, helping her to learn what was necessary. When Wenqing, a wealthy gentleman, took an interest in Jinhua, she was purchased, and like her mother, she became a concubine. She was parted from Suyin whom she dearly missed. With her husband she traveled to Vienna, a land of barbarians, according to him. He explained that these people thought the Chinese were heathens, they were not Christians. He said, however, that they held the moral high ground respecting virtuous behavior and the foreign devils did not. She was naïve because of her lack of experience, but her curiosity continued to grow as she watched this new world that existed outside her window in the Palais Kinsky, and she began to question what Wenqing told her. One day, she decided to see for herself, and she left the house and mixed with the barbarians, becoming quite enamored with a Count from the Austrian Court. When her husband discovered her indiscretion, defying the very rules of decorum he had set down, she became a prisoner, locked within the confines of the house, permitted only one visitor, a woman he approved of, and she was forced to submit to his desires since he wanted a child, a son, an heir, and it was her duty to her husband to satisfy and please him.Eventually, she escaped and returned to Suzhou where she found Suyin. Together they moved to Peking and set up a brothel. They treated their girls well, allowing them the freedom to come and go. In the meanwhile, foreign invaders were continuing to conquer Chinese lands and the Boxer Rebellion cane to a head with the full force of the destruction and death that they left in their wake. They created chaos and fear as they rampaged throughout the country, burning, beheading and dismembering the bodies of their victims. They showed no mercy, but rather they taunted and tortured their victims with the approval of the Empress and the Emperor. When the foreign powers finally regained control, they too pillaged and abused the population.When Jinhua finally recognized the damage her own behavior and selfishness had caused, she returned to Suzhou and fulfilled the dream of her beloved “sister” friend, Suyin, by opening a bakery and living a quiet life with the sound of flowing water nearby.The Chinese believed that the rest of the world was made up of barbarians while they, the Chinese, were far superior, morally and culturally. They believed the rumors about the sadistic, depraved and disrespectful behavior of the “barbarians”. There were stories about the way the foreign devils abused their women and children. Yet, it was actually the Chinese that sold their children, often into a lifetime of cruel bondage or servitude in brothels, it was the Chinese that had more than one wife, and the Chinese who basically imprisoned their women and used them as objects of pleasure.The author presented a picture of the history of China that was quite illuminating, putting the reader right in the midst of the confusion after Lao Mangzi’s death, as Timu signs the contract for Jinhua’s sale to the “go-between”, followed by her sale and abuse at the hands of Lao Mama in the brothel. We experience Vienna with Jinhua and her reunion with Suyin when she prevails upon her to move to Peking to open a brothel where they will treat the girls well. She does not reveal to Suyin, her reasons for wanting to resettle there, but Suyin is devoted to her. We experience their fear as the Boxer Rebellion reaches them, and we watch as Jinhua returns to her home town of Suzhou, finally fulfilling Suyin’s dream.The book exposes the true meaning of love and freedom as it exposes the prejudice, propaganda, and ignorance of the era.
    • 4/5
      A well researched and written novel about a little known period and place. The book deals with a girl/lady living in China in the late 1800's and ultimately during the Boxer Rebellion there when traditionalists were trying to purge themselves of European influence. Jinhua, the courtesan, is sold, escapes from her owner, goes to Europe for a time and ultimately ends up back in China during the high point of the bloodshed. As a history teacher I appreciate the care and accuracy taken by Ms. Curry in this unique historical novel.
    • 3/5
      It’s a story of a young Chinese girl who gets sold to a brothel owner shortly after her father dies. It starts off quite well and had the potential to be a very good book, but it fell short for me. The characters didn’t come alive like they should have and the story just didn’t flow very well. The last third of the book was awful… I couldn’t wait for it to end. Also, this is a minor detail, but it irks me tremendously when authors weave in passages in another language, but they can’t be bothered to get them checked to ensure they are grammatically correct. There’s an atrocious French sentence in there that needs correcting.
    • 4/5
      In 1881, a Chinese mandarin is beheaded for speaking the truth to the Emperor, leaving his 7 year old daughter, Jinhua, orphaned, as her mother died giving birth to her. His First Wife promptly sells her, and she, the pampered child who has unbound feet and the ability to read, ends up in a low class brothel and forced into being a ‘money tree’ at just shy of twelve years old. The only person who is kind to her through this is the brothel maid, Suyin. Her career is cut mercifully short, however, when a high government official, Subchancellor Hong, visits and decides she is the reincarnation of his old love. Jinhua’s life takes her not just to the upper class again, but to Vienna, and to Peking during the Boxer Rebellion. Sai Jinhua was a real woman, and through the years much of the detail of her life has been lost, altered, and made legendary. The author has done her research, not just into Jinhua’s life but the lives of those who knew (or might have known) her, and into the conditions in China during the period, but of course, given all the varying ‘histories’ she has had to make choices about which ones to use and breathe life into the story. The story comes off as (mostly) real feeling, but drags at times. The last part of the book drags- which is odd, considering what violent events take place in it. I came away with great sympathy for Jinhua- and even more of Suyin. In this book, Jinhua is totally human, with both good and bad aspects to her character. Not the best example of this type of novel, but this is a first effort and the author has great promise.