Forbidden City

A fictionalized account of the Empress Dowager of China, Tsu Hsi, last of the Manchus.

She was one who “ate life,” one for whom all the power of the Dragon throne could not give her what she sought. This is the story of Nala, born to luxury, who was sent at sixteen to the Summer Palace, to be the Emperor’s concubine, and who lived to wrest the throne from the dying monarch. It is the story of Jung Lu, the Manchu Lord who gave her the only love she was ever to know, and whose quiet and wise counsel gave her the wisdom to rule. It is the story of a country, a people, a way of life, and a hatred born of misunderstanding which carried tragic consequences. For nothing Jung Lu could say or do could soothe her hatred of the “foreign devils” and their woman ruler who dared to call herself by a name that meant “victorious.” For the first time the full picture of the Empress Dowager of China, Tsu His, last of the Manchus, is drawn to life.

From her seat on the Dragon throne she commanded an Empire. The decisions she made still leave their mark on the world. Few women in history have held as much power. Yet the days were never long enough for all she wanted to do.

Mrs. Jernigan tells the strange story of Tsu His’s love for her Prime Minister, which defied tradition, with smooth-paced narrative power, in an absorbing novel, full of pageantry and turbulence. FORBIDDEN CITY is a vivid portrait of one of the least-known but one of the most remarkable figures of history.