The Forbidden City - Rilegato

Barme, Geremie

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1846680115 ISBN 13: 9781846680113

Casa editrice: Profile Books Ltd, 2008

Riassunto

It was built by a Ming Emperor in our fifteenth century - to be a terrestrial reflection of the celestial realm of the Jade Emperor. Destroyed and rebuilt on an even more splendid scale by the final ManchuQuing Emperors, it consists of a series of courtyards approached by gates (chief among them Tianan Men) and an imperial way. This book brilliantly reconstructs the life that went on in those ancestral temples, lacquered chambers and vermilion halls both in the imperial heyday and in the decadent decline under the Dowager Empress. Fifty years ago Mao considered razing all to the ground. Now it is a Wonder of the World.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

The bewildering vastness and past imperialism of the Forbidden City come alive in Barme's account. (Glasgow Herald)

What a gorgeous dream of a book Barme had produced...will resonate powerfully with any history lover. (Sunday Express)

...genial, neatly written...Barme narrates the intrigues, the eunuchs and the concubines. (Independent)

A vivid and compelling portrait of this extraordinary attraction. (Sunday Telegraph)

This Rolls-Royce of a guidebook covers almost every conceivable physical and historical nook...packs a veritable palace of information into its pages... brims with scholarship. (Sunday Times)

...in a class of its own. (TLS)

Descrizione del libro:

At the heart of Beijing lies the great walled palace compound of the Forbidden City: the palace, its mystique and its history have played a huge role in defining China and its perceptions. This book offers an amazing portrait of that storied collection of buildings which enables us to understand the life of imperial China.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Profile Books Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1846680115
• ISBN 13: 9781846680113
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 288