Status
Available
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Collection
Publication
Rugged Land (2004), Edition: 1st, Hardcover, 320 pages
Description
In the Bestselling tradition of The Red Tent, a dazzling novel of the extraordinary biblical heroine who ascended to the position of queen and sacrificed love in exchange for the lives of her people. The story of Esther-- whose mesmerizing beauty was matched only by her clear-eyed wisdom-- has inspired women for centuries. Now her suspenseful tale comes to life through the eyes of a contemporary woman, debut novelist Rebecca Kohn. Capturing the passionate longings and political danger that have made Esther's legacy so timeless, The Gilded Chamber blends meticulous research with gripping storytelling to transport us to an ancient time in the far-flung Persian Empire. Orphaned and terrified, Esther journeys across the River Tigris to start a new life with her cousin-- a man well positioned in the court, and to whom she is betrothed. Her transformation from girl to woman unfolds against a lavish backdrop of the royal court and harem, rife with intrigue and daring alliances. Esther wins much of what she seeks: the heart of a king, and the deliverance of her people. But her rise to the role of queen is not without a price; she must turn her back on all that she ever wanted, and give her body to a man she can never love. In a haunting, unflinching voice, The Gilded Chamber illuminates an epic dilemma between the yearnings of a woman's heart and the obligations imposed on her by fate. In Esther's case, choice makes history-- and unforgettable reading… (more)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member caltheat
This novel was not as well written as THE RED TENT, but in the end, just as compelling. I liked the persona of Esther as she was imagined in this story. It was interesting that the story was made into a two-fold romance, that Esther could love both Mordechai and the King for different reasons. In
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some ways the men were too much one-sided. Ester's and Mordechai's move toward religiousity under stress was true to life. We all tend to rely on God when everything else is unstable, but it is still all too easy to fall away from teh religious habits when life is good, even when good is simple and quiet, and when unstable is luxurious and rich. Show Less
LibraryThing member msjoanna
The Gilded Chamber is an enjoyable historical fiction retelling of the Story of Esther. The author does a nice job of envisioning and realizing the details of daily life in the King's harem and making Esther a complicated and interesting character. The male characters in the book were generally a
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bit flat, but the careful plotting, lush language, and rich female (and eunuch) characters genrally made up for it. Recommended for readers who enjoyed The Red Tent and other biblical retellings. Show Less
LibraryThing member dancingBeagles
A very interesting take on the Esther story. My feeling is that this story may be more historically accurate than the love story most of us know; however, it is kind of sad. The king is such a disappointment, as both a ruler and a husband. It pretty much confirms that prince charming belongs in
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Disney and not the real world. Show Less
LibraryThing member ZoharLaor
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 female characters are drawn very nicely, but the males seemed to be a bit flat and uninteresting. That’s too bad because Xerxes, Mordechai and Haman are fascinating cultural, historical and biblical characters by their own right.
This is not a criticism, just an observation.
Another issue is consistency. The king is depicted as a raging drunk in one scene, and as a benevolent monarch in another and from some reason Esther’s portrayal changes towards the end of the book. However, these might be just me nitpicking because I really like the Book of Esther.
Overall I liked the book. It was engaging, entertaining and doesn’t sugar-coat (too much) the harsh life women had (even royalty).
The book itself is very inventive, I must give
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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” part of historical fiction. Part of my enjoyment reading historical fiction is that I learn something along the way, if I have to pick apart what’s accurate and what’s not it takes away from the experience.The female characters are drawn very nicely, but the males seemed to be a bit flat and uninteresting. That’s too bad because Xerxes, Mordechai and Haman are fascinating cultural, historical and biblical characters by their own right.
This is not a criticism, just an observation.
Another issue is consistency. The king is depicted as a raging drunk in one scene, and as a benevolent monarch in another and from some reason Esther’s portrayal changes towards the end of the book. However, these might be just me nitpicking because I really like the Book of Esther.
Overall I liked the book. It was engaging, entertaining and doesn’t sugar-coat (too much) the harsh life women had (even royalty).
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LibraryThing member amandacb
Ever since I translated the book of Esther from Old English to modern English for a graduate course, I've been fascinated by her. She was such a strong, intelligent woman, so I was very excited to read a historical fiction novel that I hoped would do her justice.
However, while the book itself is
However, while the book itself is
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"just okay," as others have pointed out below, it tends to fall short. The characters are essentially uneven and mercurial. Show Less
LibraryThing member ursula
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
Before Hadassah can sort out whether or not her cousin still intends to marry her (she's 14 and getting impatient), she's taken by the king's soldiers and sent to the harem to see if she will be a good concubine for the king. She is now known as Esther and fearful of revealing herself to be Jewish. She finds favor with Xerxes and is soon elevated to Queen. She ultimately uses this position to save the Jews of the Persian Empire from a death edict.
Just looking at it as a story, I was hoping that Xerxes would end up having a little more substance to him, or at least a more consistent characterization. But royalty was allowed to be as mercurial as they pleased, so maybe that's based on history. I sped through the first 2/3 of the book, but the last part dragged for me a bit. I was sort of disappointed - I thought Esther would do more, somehow, or change Xerxes for the better, and the last chapter or so seemed unnecessary.
But overall, I enjoyed it and the depiction of a harem/concubine/court setting from a place and era about which I knew nothing.
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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 to marry her (she's 14 and getting impatient), she's taken by the king's soldiers and sent to the harem to see if she will be a good concubine for the king. She is now known as Esther and fearful of revealing herself to be Jewish. She finds favor with Xerxes and is soon elevated to Queen. She ultimately uses this position to save the Jews of the Persian Empire from a death edict.
Just looking at it as a story, I was hoping that Xerxes would end up having a little more substance to him, or at least a more consistent characterization. But royalty was allowed to be as mercurial as they pleased, so maybe that's based on history. I sped through the first 2/3 of the book, but the last part dragged for me a bit. I was sort of disappointed - I thought Esther would do more, somehow, or change Xerxes for the better, and the last chapter or so seemed unnecessary.
But overall, I enjoyed it and the depiction of a harem/concubine/court setting from a place and era about which I knew nothing.
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LibraryThing member karenlisa
The Gilded Chamber By Rebecca Kohn Esther is orphaned when her parents both die in Babylon. She is a young girl and betrothed to a much older cousin, Mordechi, who works as the treasury official for the King. He has more or less hidden his Jewish affiliation and lived away from his family for many
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years. His relationship with Esther is more father/daughter than future wife but he grows very fond of her. After the evil Queen Vashti is banished from the kingdom, new virgin concubines are rounded up to bring to the King's harem. Esther is one of them. Pretty and 14 yrs old she is imprisoned into a life of slavery and desperately wishes to be back with Mordechi. Then the King chooses Esther for his Queen. Lust, romance, intrigue, murder. There is no modern day drama that can match the story of Queen Esther. A lot more fun to read than going to Sunday school. Great book! Show Less
LibraryThing member Tropic_of_Cancer
Read it a few years ago. Don't really remember much of it, but I remember I thought it was ok, but nothing special.
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
It may be that with a star and a half 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
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 she couldn't have witnessed--yes, I know, they could have been reported to her the way the doings of say Bush's or Obama's cabinet meetings are reported to those of us who have never seen the inside of the White House, but it seemed jarring. Then there were the flashbacks done in eye-straining italics--always to me an amateurish move, as if stupid font tricks will drape gauze before our eyes. Kohn also went well over her quota in exclamation points and her dialogue was graceless.
Finally, the author's Esther struck me as vapid, especially in her devotion to the spineless Mordecai her betrothed (and uncle!) Yes, I know, this wasn't a modern woman, but one raised in a patriarchal culture. That didn't stop Diamant (whose Red Tent this novel was compared to on the cover) from making her heroine a compelling figure without feeling anachronistic. But then Diamant can write...
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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 she couldn't have witnessed--yes, I know, they could have been reported to her the way the doings of say Bush's or Obama's cabinet meetings are reported to those of us who have never seen the inside of the White House, but it seemed jarring. Then there were the flashbacks done in eye-straining italics--always to me an amateurish move, as if stupid font tricks will drape gauze before our eyes. Kohn also went well over her quota in exclamation points and her dialogue was graceless.
Finally, the author's Esther struck me as vapid, especially in her devotion to the spineless Mordecai her betrothed (and uncle!) Yes, I know, this wasn't a modern woman, but one raised in a patriarchal culture. That didn't stop Diamant (whose Red Tent this novel was compared to on the cover) from making her heroine a compelling figure without feeling anachronistic. But then Diamant can write...
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LibraryThing member zibilee
In this inventive work of Biblical fiction, Rebecca Kohn tells the story of a young Hassadah, a Jewish orphan who is sent to live with her cousin Mordecchai following her parents' deaths. Hassadah barely has time to unpack her things before she is swept away by King Xerxes's soldiers, who are in
I had read this book several years ago and ended up having a pretty positive experience with it. Not so the second time around. Although I found the story interesting, this time I found that it veered a bit too much into the area of melodrama for my liking. At times, Ester would burst into dark poetic passages that mirrored her circumstances, but I found that these passages were somehow jarring and took me out of the story, and frankly, they sometimes put me in a bad mood. I think the author's intention was to add a bit of dimension to her main character, but it came off as stiff and unbelievable, and it was a definite detraction in this tale. I felt as though there was already enough meat in her character portrayal without the dramatic pandering that she went through every time she faced conflict; instead of it drawing me closer to her, it actually pushed me away.
I was also a bit put off by the blatant sexuality in the tale. The sexual elements in this book seemed very out of place and not really rendered well at all. I didn't really need to know that the Queen's gown neatly left visible all of her "secret treasures" and I thought it was a bit exploitative to inject these bits into what was already a sufficiently stirring story. I think the author had a way of cheapening the sexual aspects of the story in her attempts to be coy and non-offensive. I would have much rather had the characters refer to their body parts or sexual activities in proper terms, instead of having to read about "innermost treasures."
Another thing that I had a problem with was the historical accuracy of this book. While each writer of historical fiction must take certain liberties when writing a fictional version of historical events, I don't much like it when the history portion of the narrative is fabricated. I understand that this was done in order to provide a more smooth storyline and to increase the dramatic intent of the story, but it really affected my enjoyment of and immersion in the story. It just wasn't fun having to pick apart what was accurate and what was not while trying to enjoy the novel, and so this also irked me.
On the other hand, I found that the story had great atmospheric touches and that the sections that described harem life were very consuming. I liked that there were several other supporting characters' stories that round out this story and the stories of the other concubines were integrated very nicely with Esther's main storyline. The girls that Esther befriended in the harem all had interesting qualities and striking motivations for their actions, while her handmaiden, Puah, exhibited the motherly love that Esther had been longing for most of her life. I also liked all of the royal intrigue that took place within the kingdom, and thought that the author had a great ability to imbue her characters with telling and believable behavioral traits. In some way this book was very pleasurable, but in others I found it lacking.
This was also the first pick for our book club. Most of the group had similar feelings as I did towards it, and most found the first half of the book to be more involving than the latter half. A few of the members had substantial issues with the fact that the history and the timeline of the story was so changed from the actual story in the Bible, and others felt that her characters, particularly her portrayal of Esther, was not constant throughout the narrative. I have to agree that in later sections Esther acted truly out of character in order to fill out the machinations of the plot. Overall, I would have to say that the surface opinion of the book was generally positive, but further discussion led us to agree that there was much to pick apart in relation to several aspects of the story. I think that if you are not familiar with the story of Esther in the bible, this book would make a pleasant diversion for you. If, however, you are looking for a book that is more faithful to the actual story in the bible, I suggest you look elsewhere.
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the process of gathering up all the young virgins of the land to be presented to the King as prospective wives. The hundreds of young women who are not selected by the King will eventually come to spend the rest of their days in the King's harem as his concubines. When Hassadah enters the harem, she is immediately noticed by the keeper of the women and her name is changed to Esther. As she navigates the troubled world of the harem, she learns about the King she has not yet met and begins to be groomed as the perfect companion for Xerxes. When the King finally meets the beautiful and kind Esther, he is immediately enamored of her and quickly makes her his Queen, removing her from the fate of the concubines and making her the most powerful woman in the land. But Esther's story does not end there, for there is mischief in the form of plots on the King's life and danger and jealousies from all corners of the kingdom and beyond. Soon it becomes apparent that Esther will be more influential and powerful than even she thought possible, as the very survival of the Jewish people rests solely in her hands. Sweeping and illuminative, Kohn transforms this short chapter of the Bible into an intricate story of a courageous and influential young woman who became Queen, and so much more.I had read this book several years ago and ended up having a pretty positive experience with it. Not so the second time around. Although I found the story interesting, this time I found that it veered a bit too much into the area of melodrama for my liking. At times, Ester would burst into dark poetic passages that mirrored her circumstances, but I found that these passages were somehow jarring and took me out of the story, and frankly, they sometimes put me in a bad mood. I think the author's intention was to add a bit of dimension to her main character, but it came off as stiff and unbelievable, and it was a definite detraction in this tale. I felt as though there was already enough meat in her character portrayal without the dramatic pandering that she went through every time she faced conflict; instead of it drawing me closer to her, it actually pushed me away.
I was also a bit put off by the blatant sexuality in the tale. The sexual elements in this book seemed very out of place and not really rendered well at all. I didn't really need to know that the Queen's gown neatly left visible all of her "secret treasures" and I thought it was a bit exploitative to inject these bits into what was already a sufficiently stirring story. I think the author had a way of cheapening the sexual aspects of the story in her attempts to be coy and non-offensive. I would have much rather had the characters refer to their body parts or sexual activities in proper terms, instead of having to read about "innermost treasures."
Another thing that I had a problem with was the historical accuracy of this book. While each writer of historical fiction must take certain liberties when writing a fictional version of historical events, I don't much like it when the history portion of the narrative is fabricated. I understand that this was done in order to provide a more smooth storyline and to increase the dramatic intent of the story, but it really affected my enjoyment of and immersion in the story. It just wasn't fun having to pick apart what was accurate and what was not while trying to enjoy the novel, and so this also irked me.
On the other hand, I found that the story had great atmospheric touches and that the sections that described harem life were very consuming. I liked that there were several other supporting characters' stories that round out this story and the stories of the other concubines were integrated very nicely with Esther's main storyline. The girls that Esther befriended in the harem all had interesting qualities and striking motivations for their actions, while her handmaiden, Puah, exhibited the motherly love that Esther had been longing for most of her life. I also liked all of the royal intrigue that took place within the kingdom, and thought that the author had a great ability to imbue her characters with telling and believable behavioral traits. In some way this book was very pleasurable, but in others I found it lacking.
This was also the first pick for our book club. Most of the group had similar feelings as I did towards it, and most found the first half of the book to be more involving than the latter half. A few of the members had substantial issues with the fact that the history and the timeline of the story was so changed from the actual story in the Bible, and others felt that her characters, particularly her portrayal of Esther, was not constant throughout the narrative. I have to agree that in later sections Esther acted truly out of character in order to fill out the machinations of the plot. Overall, I would have to say that the surface opinion of the book was generally positive, but further discussion led us to agree that there was much to pick apart in relation to several aspects of the story. I think that if you are not familiar with the story of Esther in the bible, this book would make a pleasant diversion for you. If, however, you are looking for a book that is more faithful to the actual story in the bible, I suggest you look elsewhere.
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LibraryThing member lissabeth21
Quick moving story - not overly obsessed with any particular moment or description. Just enough to paint a great picture and keep me turning the pages as quickly as I could to see what the next page would bring!
LibraryThing member mazda502001
I read this quite a long time ago. The author retells the tale of Jewish heroine Esther, who first became the concubine, and later the wife, of Persian King Xerxes, and the sacrifices this brave woman took on to help save her people. This novel brings new depth to the story of this legendary
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biblical queen. It does contain graphic sex scenes……. Show Less
ISBN
159071024X / 9781590710241