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The Last Manchu
- The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
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The Last Manchu
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This autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, the last Qing emperor, tells the real-life story of a king in pauper's clothing. A head of state by the time he learned to walk, Pu Yi's shifting fortunes found him deposed, reinstated, jailed for war crimes, and ultimately redeemed, oddly enough, in the eyes of the communist government, while he lived and worked as a commoner. With a voice reminiscent of the great Alec Guinness, Gildart Jackson delivers audiences a tremulous performance, capturing the conflicted nature of the beleaguered emperor. The English actor exudes a regal sophistication, alternately punctured by arrogance and regret as Pu Yi grapples with unlikely turns of fate.
Publisher's summary
In 1908, at the age of two, Henry Pu Yi ascended to become the last emperor of the centuries-old Manchu dynasty. After revolutionaries forced Pu Yi to abdicate in 1911, the young emperor lived for 13 years in Peking’s Forbidden City, but with none of the power his birth afforded him. The remainder of Pu Yi’s life was lived out in a topsy-turvy fashion: fleeing from a Chinese warlord, becoming head of a Japanese puppet state, being confined to a Russian prison in Siberia, and enduring taxing labor. The Last Manchu is a unique, enthralling record of China’s most turbulent, dramatic years.
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
Lanning “Lanny” Budd spends his first 13 years in Europe, living at the center of his mother’s glamourous circle of friends on the French Riviera. In 1913, he enters a prestigious Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious - but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end. When the gathering storm clouds of war finally burst, raining chaos and death over the continent, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him.
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3 out of 5 stars
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didn't finish
- By Bird Miller on 05-08-22
By: Upton Sinclair
-
The House of Government
- A Saga of the Russian Revolution
- By: Yuri Slezkine, Claire Bloom - director
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 45 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 169
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the epic story of an enormous apartment building where Communist true believers lived before their destruction. The House of Government is unlike any other book about the Russian Revolution and the Soviet experiment.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inside saga of the leaders of Bolshevism & the USSR
- By Edward V. Blanchard on 11-05-17
By: Yuri Slezkine, and others
-
Indian Summer
- The Secret History of the End of an Empire
- By: Alex von Tunzelmann
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 200
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 169
At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the British Empire withdrew from India, igniting the exhilaration and turmoil of a newly free society. In this vivid, atmospheric popular history, Alex von Tunzelmann chronicles these times through the most prominent figures.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Such an interesting piece of History made easy
- By Diego on 01-23-12
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With Hitler to the End
- The Memoirs of Hitler's Valet
- By: Heinz Linge
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 145
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 129
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
Heinz Linge worked with Adolf Hitler for a 10 year period from 1935 until the Fuhrer's death in the Berlin bunker in May 1945. He was one of the last to leave the bunker and was responsible for guarding the door while Hitler killed himself. During his years of service, Linge was responsible for all aspects of Hitler's household and was constantly by his side. He claims that only Eva Braun stood closer to Hitler over these years. Through a host of anecdotes and observations, Linge recounts the daily routine in Hitler's household; his eating habits, his foibles, his preferences, his sense of humour, and his private life with Eva Braun.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Insight into One of Hitler's Unrepentant Dullards
- By Erik on 12-19-14
By: Heinz Linge
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The Rasputin File
- By: Edvard Radzinsky, Judson Rosengrant - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 22 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 96
For almost a century, historians could only speculate about the role Grigory Rasputin played in the downfall of tsarist Russia. But in 1995 a lost file from the state archives turned up, a file that contained the complete interrogations of Rasputin's inner circle. With this extensive and explicit amplification of the historical record, Edvard Radzinsky has written a definitive biography, reconstructing in full the fascinating life of an improbable holy man who changed the course of Russian history.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Good old Radzinsky
- By Babs on 03-13-18
By: Edvard Radzinsky, and others
-
Victoria & Abdul (Movie Tie-in)
- The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant
- By: Shrabani Basu
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 130
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 111
History’s most unlikely friendship - this is the astonishing story of Queen Victoria and her dearest companion, the young Indian Munshi Abdul Karim. In the twilight years of her reign, after the devastating deaths of her two great loves - Prince Albert and John Brown - Queen Victoria meets tall and handsome Abdul Karim, a humble servant from Agra waiting tables at her Golden Jubilee. The two form an unlikely bond and within a year Abdul becomes a powerful figure at court, the Queen’s teacher, her counsel on Urdu and Indian affairs, and a friend close to her heart.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Honestly, can’t finish yet.
- By Cassie on 12-30-17
By: Shrabani Basu
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Desert Queen
- The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia
- By: Janet Wallach
- Narrated by: Jean Gilpin
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 270
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 229
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 233
Turning her back on her privileged life in Victorian England, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), fired by her innate curiosity, journeyed the world and became fascinated with all things Arab. Traveling the length and breadth of the Arab region, armed with a love for its language and its people, she not only produced several enormously popular books based on her experiences but became instrumental to the British foreign office. When World War I erupted, and the British needed the loyalty of the Arab leaders, it was Gertrude Bell's work and connections that helped provided the brain for T. E. Lawrence's military brawn.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great beginning, then gets boring
- By Msz on 03-31-16
By: Janet Wallach
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Peter the Great
- His Life and World
- By: Robert K. Massie
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 43 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,180
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,000
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 989
This superbly told story brings to life one of the most remarkable rulers––and men––in all of history and conveys the drama of his life and world. The Russia of Peter's birth was very different from the Russia his energy, genius, and ruthlessness shaped. Crowned co-Tsar as a child of ten, after witnessing bloody uprisings in the streets of Moscow, he would grow up propelled by an unquenchable curiosity, everywhere looking, asking, tinkering, and learning, fired by Western ideas.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
Narrater ruins everything
- By BrendaLouQuilts on 12-30-11
By: Robert K. Massie
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Stalin
- The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives
- By: Edvard Radzinsky
- Narrated by: David McCallum
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 226
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 144
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 143
The Kremlin intrigues, the private worlds of the Soviet Empire's ruling class, Radzinsky thrillingly brings them to life. And the riddle of that most cold-blooded of leaders, a man for whom nothing was sacred in his pursuit of absolute might, and perhaps the greatest mass murderer in Western history, is solved.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Great Book About a Great Tyrant
- By Moon Man on 05-01-05
By: Edvard Radzinsky
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Wild Swans
- Three Daughters of China
- By: Jung Chang
- Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
- Length: 22 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,936
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,703
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,707
Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular best seller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Accurate, moving and chilling
- By David on 12-15-12
By: Jung Chang
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Out of the Depths
- The Story of a Child of Buchenwald Who Returned Home at Last
- By: Rabbi Israel Meir Lau
- Narrated by: Steve Blane
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
Israel Meir Lau, one of the youngest survivors of Buchenwald, was just eight years old when the camp was liberated in 1945. Descended from a 1,000-year unbroken chain of rabbis, he grew up to become Chief Rabbi of Israel--and like many of the great rabbis, Lau is a master storyteller. Out of the Depths is his harrowing, miraculous, and inspiring account of life in one of the Nazis' deadliest concentration camps, and how he managed to survive against all possible odds.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing Book, Amazing Man
- By Shari on 01-14-13
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Hitler
- The Memoir of a Nazi Insider Who Turned Against the Fuhrer
- By: Ernst Hanfstaengl
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
An intimate friend of Adolf Hitler’s who turned against him during the Nazi rise to power delves into the character of one of history’s most evil dictators. Of American and German parentage, Ernst Hanfstaengl graduated from Harvard and ran the family business in New York for a dozen years before returning to Germany in 1921. By chance he heard a then little-known Adolf Hitler speaking in a Munich beer hall and, mesmerized by his extraordinary oratorical power, was convinced the man would some day come to power. As Hitler’s fanatical theories and ideas hardened, however, he surrounded himself with rabid extremists...
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3 out of 5 stars
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Once a Nazi, always a Nazi
- By Alan on 04-10-13
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Aavarana
- The Veil
- By: Sandeep Balakrishna - translator, S. L. Bhyrappa
- Narrated by: Deepti Gupta
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 32
Aavarana: The Veil by S. L. Bhyrappa is a story of a free-spirited and rebellious young woman, Lakshmi, who marries the man she is deeply in love with. Amir, her husband, requests she convert to Islam, and she reluctantly agrees. Despite her father being completely against the marriage, she breaks ties with him and changes her name to Razia. However, things change for the worse, and she discovers a different side to Amir. He is not the progressive and liberal person she thought he was.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent Narration
- By Vikram on 04-10-23
By: Sandeep Balakrishna - translator, and others
-
The Secrets of the Notebook
- A Woman's Quest to Uncover Her Royal Family Secret
- By: Eve Haas
- Narrated by: Jane Carr
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,982
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,828
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,814
Eve Haas is the daughter of a German Jewish family that took refuge in London after Hitler came to power. Following a terrifying air raid in the blitz, her father revealed the family secret - that her great-great grandmother Emilie was married to a Prussian prince. He then showed her the treasured leather-bound notebook inscribed to Emilie by the prince.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Completely uneventful
- By Natalie on 01-03-17
By: Eve Haas
-
Gertrude Bell
- Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
- By: Georgina Howell
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
She has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia, which, while not inaccurate, fails to give Gertrude Bell her due. She was at one time the most powerful woman in the British Empire: a nation builder, the driving force behind the creation of modern-day Iraq. Born in 1868 into a world of privilege, Bell turned her back on Victorian society, choosing to read history at Oxford and going on to become an archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author, poet, photographer, and legendary mountaineer.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Shattering The Glass Ceiling in Britain
- By Nostromo on 08-05-18
By: Georgina Howell
-
Lenin
- The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror
- By: Victor Sebestyen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Aris
- Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 554
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 478
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 465
Drawing on new research, including the diaries, memoirs, and personal letters of both Lenin and his friends, Victor Sebestyen's unique biography - the first in English in nearly two decades - is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the 20th century but a portrait of Lenin the man. Unexpectedly, Lenin was someone who loved nature, hunting, and fishing and could identify hundreds of species of plants, a despotic ruler whose closest ties and friendships were with women.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Lenin totally took an extra piece of that cake.
- By John Gathly on 05-14-19
By: Victor Sebestyen
-
Rasputin
- Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs
- By: Douglas Smith
- Narrated by: PJ Ochlan
- Length: 33 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 355
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 319
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 321
Rasputin separates fact from fiction to reveal the real life of one of history's most alluring figures. Drawing on a wealth of forgotten documents from archives in seven countries, Smith presents Rasputin in all his complexity - man of God, voice of peace, loyal subject, adulterer, drunkard. Rasputin is not just a definitive biography of an extraordinary and legendary man, but a fascinating portrait of the twilight of imperial Russia as it lurched toward catastrophe.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
A story that deserves a better narrator.
- By James on 01-27-18
By: Douglas Smith
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Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) led the Republic of China for almost fifty years, starting in 1926. He was the architect of a new republican China, a hero of the Second World War, and a faithful ally of the United States. Simultaneously a Christian and a Confucian, Chiang dreamed of universal equality yet was a perfidious and cunning dictator responsible for the deaths of over 1.5 million innocent people. This critical biography is based on Chiang Kai-shek's unpublished diaries, his extensive personal files from the Russian archives, and the Russian files of his relatives, associates, and foes.
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From one of the most admired reporters covering China today, Party of One is a vital account of the life and political vision of Xi Jinping, the authoritarian leader of the People’s Republic whose hard-edged tactics have set the rising superpower on a collision with Western liberal democracies. Chun Han Wong has chronicled Xi Jinping’s hard-line strategy. Now, Wong has drawn on his years of firsthand reporting across China to create a lucid and historically rooted account of China’s leader and how he inspires fear and fervor in his party, his nation, and beyond.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Pronunciation?
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What listeners say about The Last Manchu
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sparkly
- 08-08-13
A Marvelous and Ultimately Sad Memoir
This relatively short but detailed memoir covers the epic events of the last hundred years, told by Henry Pu Yi, the last appointed emperor of the Q'ing Dynasty. Pu Yi clearly underwent enough psychological trauma for several lifetimes - complete lack of childhood boundaries; virtual imprisonment after the birth of the Republic of China; collaboration and betrayal with the Japanese in Manchukuo; incarceration by the Soviet Union; ideological re-education by Communist authorities. I found his perspective to be startling. How can a person be simultaneously so pitiable and yet insufferable? Both helpless and haughty? Fascinating. Much of the emotional impact of the memoir comes from the fact that we readers know that he was being taken advantage of by many sides - yet Pu Yi seems tragically oblivious. I surmise that this memoir emerges from the massive "confessions" generated in the re-education camp - it definitely has mea culpa overtones.
It is a useful companion to the Bertolucci film, incidentally, which seems to follow this memoir fairly closely (with a few extra characters here and there for drama). The narrator does a remarkable job of interpreting Pu Yi's persona (cool, and with little affect) and does pretty well on the Chinese pronunciations. Bravo!
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- yoanna
- 04-26-19
A case of bad narration ruining a great story
The story is truly fascinating. Like most Westerners, prior to this book, I only knew about the life story of China's last emperor from Bertolucci's 1987 movie. After I started listening to this, I also looked him up on the (sign, where else) good old wikipedia. This autobiography glossed over, albeit understandably, A WHOLE LOT of things, including the total omission of such unimportant fact as the murder of the newborn child of the empress). And of course, one can't help noticing all that propaganda. Despite all the above-mentioned issues, it is fascinating to hear such fascinating life story from his own perspective...But seriously, couldn’t the narrator at least make a tiny little more effort in pronouncing any the Chinese names correctly?
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alemap
- 02-14-17
The Last Manchu
If you're a fan of history--and Chinese history particularly--then this book is for you. Well done and excellently performed, I enjoyed it immensely.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Megan Grape
- 10-10-21
Amazing
If you're not very interested in the history, the economics, a lot of the finer details, this may drag a bit for you. it can come off a little dry. But I thoroughly enjoyed it, because I have an obsession with this particular historical figure.
the performance was also exquisite, it was nice to have a narrator who actually understands how to say foreign words.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tejumade Durowade
- 08-29-21
A man bound to the end
This man's life was that of a desperate struggle to be free, yet always being bound. Either bound by the corrupted traditions of the Qing Dynasty as a child, emperor in name only. Or bound by the ambitions of Imperial Japan, a pawn of great power geopolitics. Or bound by the pernicious nature of Communism, again a pawn for domestic propaganda. Only in death was he free. His is a story to be told of why man should and will always seek freedom.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-24-23
Fascinating
One of the top autobiographies that I’ve ever read. Intriguing and fascinating from the start to the end.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- John A.
- 09-18-21
Great book
A wonderful book that has a great amount of valuable information to draw from. Highly recommended!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Celeste Phelps
- 09-25-18
Wow! What a great book!
As an avid fan of Chinese history, Pu yi's journey was incredible! I admire how he was able to get through what he did and was finally able to get what he wanted: to be a free man in so many ways.
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