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153rd out of 1,287 books
—
1,037 voters
The Gilded Chamber: A Novel of Queen Esther
by
Rebecca Kohn
For centuries her name has been a byword for feminine beauty, guile, and wisdom. This sweeping, meticulously researched novel restores Esther to her full, complex humanity while reanimating the glittering Persian empire in which her story unfolded. Esther comes to that land as a terrified Jewish orphan betrothed to her cousin, a well-connected courtier. She finds a world r...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
July 26th 2005
by Penguin Books
(first published 2004)
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I had a lot of flying time last weekend, so this was a $1 novel that I picked up, intending to discard at my destination.
I didn't discard The Gilded Chamber, but actually carried it back. I enjoy historical fiction -- history leaves me asleep if I don't have a character(s) to experience life through.
Queen Esther once again showed how women have spent much of humankind's time on earth valued only for their beauty and sexuality. It is chilling how a girl really, selected for her virginity and beau...more
I didn't discard The Gilded Chamber, but actually carried it back. I enjoy historical fiction -- history leaves me asleep if I don't have a character(s) to experience life through.
Queen Esther once again showed how women have spent much of humankind's time on earth valued only for their beauty and sexuality. It is chilling how a girl really, selected for her virginity and beau...more
Feb 25, 2011
Lisa (Harmonybites)
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
No One
Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List
It may be that with two stars I'm being too generous, but then having tried this novel of Queen Esther after the eye-bleedingly awful The Other Boleyn Girl, this didn't seem so wretched in comparison. Which doesn't mean it's good, and it didn't hold my interest and only its appearance on a historical fiction recommendation list caused me to give it over 50 pages.
I wasn't taken with the style at all. For one, this is first person, yet early on she's telling us of scenes in the palace with Xerxes...more
I wasn't taken with the style at all. For one, this is first person, yet early on she's telling us of scenes in the palace with Xerxes...more
The story is a familiar one, Hadassah, a Jewish orphan, is being brought to the court of King Xerxes as a possible queen. Hiding her Jewish origins she changes her name to Esther, becomes queen and saves the Jews from certain death (now...let's eat).
The book itself is very inventive, I must give the author credit and I really enjoyed the first part of the book. However, for me the book took a wrong turn by not sticking with the biblical timeline and taking too many liberties with the "fiction"...more
The book itself is very inventive, I must give the author credit and I really enjoyed the first part of the book. However, for me the book took a wrong turn by not sticking with the biblical timeline and taking too many liberties with the "fiction"...more
I was really drawn into this book right away. I didn't know anything about Esther, so I can't really comment on the historical/Biblical accuracy of the story. The plot moves along very quickly in the beginning, with Esther (then called Hadassah) being orphaned in Babylon and going to live with her cousin/husband-to-be Mordechai in Persia. Mordechai, however, is now known as Marduka the Babylonian, an adviser to King Xerxes I.
Before Hadassah can sort out whether or not her cousin still intends t...more
Before Hadassah can sort out whether or not her cousin still intends t...more
http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/...
I wouldn't have picked this up so soon after rereading The Red Tent, but my 8-year-old son was in a play about Queen Esther this week and I had a business trip, so Queen Esther it was.
Kohn's writing was not nearly as strong as Anita Diamant's, but I did have some similar issues about perspective. The novel was told in the first person, but Esther seemed to be omnipresent. It was interesting and disturbing to read about harem life and the subjugated roles t...more
I wouldn't have picked this up so soon after rereading The Red Tent, but my 8-year-old son was in a play about Queen Esther this week and I had a business trip, so Queen Esther it was.
Kohn's writing was not nearly as strong as Anita Diamant's, but I did have some similar issues about perspective. The novel was told in the first person, but Esther seemed to be omnipresent. It was interesting and disturbing to read about harem life and the subjugated roles t...more
The Gilded Chamber is pretty much a verbatim of The Book of Esther in the Old Testament. I pulled out my Bible, read Book of Esther and the author, Rebecca Kohn, used just about all of the text and then wove a tale to fill in the blanks to make her story - albeit something like a soft porn.
So, for those of you who do not know The Book of Esther, err..rather The Gildedd Chamber, here is the story:
When King Xerxes commands his wife to display herself infront of his men in nothing but a turban, she...more
So, for those of you who do not know The Book of Esther, err..rather The Gildedd Chamber, here is the story:
When King Xerxes commands his wife to display herself infront of his men in nothing but a turban, she...more
Whether or not you are interested in Bibilical history, this is a book sure to please. Kohn is quoted as saying, "I had been reading a work of nonfiction on the political ramifications of the Book of Esther and began to wonder if Esther's role was perhaps more complex than I realized." Kohn then began a journey or research that culminated in this, her first novel.
The book mixes fact with plausible fiction as it describes a young orphan's life in early Persia, describing historical accounts thro...more
The book mixes fact with plausible fiction as it describes a young orphan's life in early Persia, describing historical accounts thro...more
The fictional account of Queen Esther and her part in saving the Jews from slaughter through her close relationship with the king. Again, the most startling part of the novel, for me, is the account of the harem/concubine (not sure I know the difference) and their way of being treated. Everyone is kept pretty well drugged up and treated like silver, being polished, prepared and staged for one sole purpose.
Not sure why I actually liked the book. It seems more and more these days that books reson...more
Not sure why I actually liked the book. It seems more and more these days that books reson...more
I read the biblical book of Esther prior to reading this book. I'm a bit confused as to why this book is in the bible. I can only imagine that it's there because a King set forth the cannons and he wanted this in there to show the power of a King.
I'm curious to see this author's take on Esther's role.
Well, she did a very good job of sticking to the biblical story.
This book was recommened for people who enjoyed the Red Tent. I strongly disagree with that.
While this book was an easy read - I do...more
I'm curious to see this author's take on Esther's role.
Well, she did a very good job of sticking to the biblical story.
This book was recommened for people who enjoyed the Red Tent. I strongly disagree with that.
While this book was an easy read - I do...more
On the cover, it says "Evokes Anita Diamant's The Red Tent and Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha." I've never read The Red Tent, so I wouldn't be able to tell you if it was similar. However, The Gilded Chamber is written just like Memoirs of a Geisha. This book focuses on the women characters, really highlights finding alliances with power, and displays a desire for true love. This book was beautifully written. I felt like I understood Queen Esther's internal struggle. I suggest you read this...more
I had never heard of Esther but I was engaged by the back cover's description of a jewish orphan rising the ranks from harem concubine to queen in a Persian court. The book can at times run on but, nonetheless, I obviously was attached to these female characters, cringing at the plight of the female in other cultures in other times. The descriptions of preparations, of court, of the political manuevering, of jewish life, of family and sisterly love, of devotion, of courage...all made this an int...more
“I carried my grace and kindness before the king. He did not know my name, my people, or my descent. He did not care. Desire seized his senses and roused him from the lethargy and indifference. He tasted life again as his old self, the man he was before the loss of Vashti and the defeat in Greece. For this King Xerxes loved me more than all the other women.”
What a gem of a book! I picked this a couple of years of ago at a discount booksellers on a clearance rack. The premise caught my eye: a bo...more
What a gem of a book! I picked this a couple of years of ago at a discount booksellers on a clearance rack. The premise caught my eye: a bo...more
The Gilded Chamber / 0-14-303533-9
I cannot help but echo the reviewers who compared this to Falconer's "The Sultan's Harem". The similarities are there - a young woman plucked out of her happy, familiar life in order to sexually service a demanding despot, whilst simultaneously fighting tooth-and-nail against the other "fortunate" girls for a favored position in this unfavorable environment. But here is where Falconer shines and Kohn fades: the reaction of the girl in question to her circumstanc...more
I cannot help but echo the reviewers who compared this to Falconer's "The Sultan's Harem". The similarities are there - a young woman plucked out of her happy, familiar life in order to sexually service a demanding despot, whilst simultaneously fighting tooth-and-nail against the other "fortunate" girls for a favored position in this unfavorable environment. But here is where Falconer shines and Kohn fades: the reaction of the girl in question to her circumstanc...more
Honestly? I found the Wikipedia entry on Esther to be more interesting.
This book starts out well - Kohn uses lots of foreshadowing to make the reader believe that something totally awesome is going to happen eventually, creating enough impatient goodwill to carry you through to the end of the book. Hadassah/Esther's time in the harem is, one hopes, prelude to an amazing feat of bravery and heroism in which she casts away her disguise and come to the rescue of her people.
Instead, the second half...more
This book starts out well - Kohn uses lots of foreshadowing to make the reader believe that something totally awesome is going to happen eventually, creating enough impatient goodwill to carry you through to the end of the book. Hadassah/Esther's time in the harem is, one hopes, prelude to an amazing feat of bravery and heroism in which she casts away her disguise and come to the rescue of her people.
Instead, the second half...more
Sep 12, 2008
Marina
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of ancient history or biblical fiction, like the red tent
Recommended to Marina by:
a librarian
Shelves:
contemporary-novels
I gave this book four stars on Goodreads.com because everything about the story is meticulously detailed. The author, Rebecca Kohn, took great efforts to research not only the Jewish Book of Esther but the history and customs of the ancient Persian Empire. The result is a novel with depth instead of a silly harem fantasy.
The novel retells the story of the Jewish orphan Hadassa and her odyssey through the east as she ascends to become Queen of the Persian Empire. She becomes Queen Esther and achi...more
The novel retells the story of the Jewish orphan Hadassa and her odyssey through the east as she ascends to become Queen of the Persian Empire. She becomes Queen Esther and achi...more
This behind-the-scenes glimpse of an emancipated royal concubine is one undergirded in Orientalist romanticism. It completely reifies the 2-300 yr old Western stereotype of "exotic" harem behavior. I nearly threw-up when the author described homosexual activity within the harem, not because I didn't enjoy the visuals, but because it was SO PREDICTABLE!
I would hesitate to compare "The Guilded Chamber" to "The Red Tent" just because the main character is Jewish woman and the story is told from a...more
I would hesitate to compare "The Guilded Chamber" to "The Red Tent" just because the main character is Jewish woman and the story is told from a...more
Here's the deal: very minor problems can sour a novel, and this book is filled with minor problems; and unfortunately, some major ones as well. One problem is the author doesn't know how she feels about her characters. It's as though she's developed them haphazardly, with no thought for consistency or cohesion. The relationships between characters are not believable. The behaviors of the characters are not believable. A major problem is that the plot disappears at one point, never really to resu...more
I don't know how historically correct this fictional story is about how a queen (who hid her Jewish background from the Persian king she was married to) saved the Jewish people from annilihation from Xerxes in Persia, as I looked up some of the stories one of the character tells in Herodotus' Histories. The story of the shawl has to do with his son, Artaxerxes, and the name of the wife is different. All stories have been massaged over the ages to fit the religion of the moment, so one could thin...more
I loved this book but don't remember to many details. Read it many years ago. If any younger women are reading this review, this book is not heavy or religious (even though it is based on fiction about Queen Ester from the Bible). It is a fascinating look of many women living and struggling together and forming strong bonds. Great book for all ages of women!
I read this book in early 2008, after buying it for a dollar from Borders. I remember being drawn into it at first, but couldn't believe how graphic (sexual) it was. The word that comes to mind is smut. Total smut. Normally after I finish a book I own and didn't like, I donate it. This one, I threw away. It wasn't even good enough to recycle.
A fun dramatization of real events--the story of Queen Esther of the Bible, who had to hide her identity as a Jew when selected to be a harem girl for King Xerxes of Babylon. She then rose through the ranks to become his wife, eventually becoming able to influence his political moves and prevent the exile of her fellow Jews from Babylon. It created many mixed emotions in our book club...as feminists, we were outraged by the enslavement of women for sexual purposes, yada yada; but my, it made bei...more
Jul 27, 2011
Tori
added it
2010- I wasn't very familiar with the Biblical story behind this book, so I found myself confused at times. The similarities in names also led me to mix-up some characters. I never felt like I really connected with any of the characters, including Esther. It was just okay for me. I preferred ""The Red Tent"".
I adored this book. It brought the story of Queen Esther to life, wiping away the sanitized Hebrew School version to reveal a woman who used what little power she had to save her people. I also loved the way the writer explored the Esther/Ishtar connection, as well as the sumptuous social historical details of clothing, food, etc.
Excellent telling of the story of Esther from the Bible. Lots of detail about life in the Persian King's harem and all the politics and intrigue within the palace. Well researched. If you liked The Red Tent (story of Dinah, sister of Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat), you'll enjoy this.
I loved this book! I couldn't put it down! A fascinating fictional-based-on-fact account of Esther from the bible. It's an awesome description of what life may have been like in ancient Persia, in a harem, in a palance, and outside in the real world. I highly recommend it!
I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. An interesting story with lots of historical detail, it is a social, religious and political commentary of the time. The style is relaxed but the narration by the main character gives the prose a feel of this period. Well worth a read.
Very good book, follows the story of Esther from the Old Testament. Very close to the bible story with a little fiction added to make it a great story. I enjoyed Rebecca's writing, easy to read and I am now reading other bible story she has written "Seven days to the sea".
I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and I was able to identify with the characters. After reading The Red Tent and now The Gilded Chamber, I have come to LOVE biblical fiction and can't wait to get my hands on some more.
Kohn tries to pull off another Red Tent with another Bible character - Esther - but fails. Her history is probably well researched, but the characters are flat and the writing is not gripping enough to save the story.
Yes!!! This was certainly an exciting story, and really covers what we actually know of Esther from the Bible. The fiction part of this story seems very plausible, but certainly is fiction. Not for young readers.
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Nov 09, 2012 06:16pm