La cité des sortilèges

by Han Suyin

Leur père fabrique des automates, leur mère est, dit-on, une sorcière. Béa et Colin sont jumeaux, liés l'un à l'autre par un étrange et indestructible amour. Nous sommes en 1752, non loin de Lausanne. De tragiques événements les obligent à se réfupq'er à Genève, chez un banquier juif. C'est là qu'ils font la connaissance d'Abdul Reza, riche prince musulman qui les emmène en Chine où Colin peut perfectionner cet art des automates qu'il tient de son père. Quant à sa soeur Béa qui a hérité, elle, des dons mystérieux de sa mère, sa beauté fait des ravages. Forcés une nouvelle fois de fuir, Colin et Béa se retrouvent à Ayuthia, ancienne capitale du Siam. C'est dans cette ville légendaire aux temples couverts d'or, où le roi vit entouré de ses sept cents concubines, et qui est menacée pourtant par les envahisseurs venus de Birmanie, que Colin et Béa vont connaître l'amour, la haine, la violence : un destin hors série.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, China, Chinese Literature

507 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Han Suyin (Pinyin: Hán Sùyīn) is the pen name of Elizabeth Comber, born Rosalie Elisabeth Kuanghu Chow (Pinyin: Zhōu Guānghú). She was a Chinese-born Eurasian author of several books on modern China, novels set in East Asia, and autobiographical works, as well as a physician. She wrote in English and French. She died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2012.

Reviews

[Esfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Enchantress (1985) is an extraordinary book on several levels--historical, cultural, and mythical. The integration of diverse cultural viewpoints on life, love, and death is a skill at which Han Suyin is peerless.

[Deborah Castellanos · Rating 4 out of 5]

You span the world from the Alps of Switzerland to the cities covered in water in China. Twins each with a special talent that changes the course of history. The young girl who sees and hears things beyond any persons imagination that must be kept secret or she would be burned at the stake. The boy who inherited his father gift of animation of objects that would change the future of engineering. The link that they have as twins being able to hear each other's thoughts and call to each other thru the space of emptiness.
In that era people were fond of music boxes that were entertaining. Clocks that sang at each hour. Few people in the world at that time were able to build magnificence but this young man was able to save an empire with such creations. A young girl that could bring a king to his knees.

[Cindy Black]

In the middle of the Settencento the twins Colin and Bea leave Switzerland to embark on a long journey that will lead them to China: he is endowed with an exceptional watchmaker talent and the emperor needs his skill; she had as a gift a bewitching beauty. But it is only when they reach the fabulous city of Ayuthia, with its thousand golden domes, that the two brothers meet their destiny: Colin falls in love with a woman that the sovereign wants all to himself, while Bea lets herself be carried away by a passion that will lead her to betrayal...
Translation of above.

[Stefania Saviane · Rating 4 out of 5]

29/40 Iread: libro ambientato in Cina
35/40 Popsugar: autrice di colore

Non proprio nuovissimo questo romanzo su una coppia di gemelli che a fine settecento partono dalla Svizzera e finiscono in Oriente: in Cina prima, in Siam dopo. Basato su avvenimenti storici, l'ho trovato tuttavia coinvolgente. L'incontro fra Occidente e Oriente, fra tradizione e modernità, fra religione e spiritualità rimangono sullo sfondo ma sono ottimo spunto. Storie d'amore non banali, e tanta multietnicità. Bello

[Martina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un romanzo storico avvincente e con un'atmosfera poetica, quasi fiabesca, un viaggio in Paesi e culture lontane, dalla Svizzera calvinista all'antica Thailandia, passando per l'India e la Cina imperiale. A tratti un po' lento.

[Giulia Sema · Rating 2 out of 5]

Colin e Bea, due gemelli, perdono i loro genitori, trucidati da fanatici che li accusano di stregoneria. Inizia così il loro viaggio che li porterà alla scoperta di se stessi e del mondo. Dall’Europa all’Asia, in un tumulto di emozioni e sentimenti.

[MariaGrazia Bacilieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stupendo!
Ambientato in un periodo storico che non conoscevo, è assolutamente affascinante.

[Elena Mora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Due e mezzo... ho apprezzato molto l'ultima parte del libro. I riferimenti storici molro meglio della storia dei due protagonisti.

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a retrospective review of a book I read over twenty years ago. My only sure memory of it was the introduction of the automaton toward the middle or end of the book. That lifelike, very human-like automaton unsettled me, especially as I could not reconcile the novel's trajectory with that of Love is a Many Splendored Thing, the movie. A silly reaction, come to think of it, since the book was nothing like the movie.

[Firefly_1824 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book for a while and didn't think too much about reading it, but then I picked it up and couldn't put it down. It's a great story with good writing, and the way Suyin describes each place I saw them all very clearly. I really enjoyed reading this.

[Elizabeth Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting.

[Carol]

recommended by Luce

[Noura · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read. Highly recommended.

[Katharine Ott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Enchantress" - written by Han Suyin and published in 1985 by Bantam. An unusual story of China and Switzerland in the 1700s.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good book was hard to put down

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't enjoy it.