All right. So. I have continued reading The Red Queen and am thoroughly enjoying it. I will say that it is a bit too much on the history side of things, but I know that it is necessary for me to understand this information as the second half of the book (which is set in modern times) will make absolutely no sense without it.
The last fifty pages or so of the book have been spent explaining the childhood of Princess Hong. She is a girl from 1700′s South Korea who is picked at an early age to be the wife of the crown prince, Prince Sado. She is taken and they are married at the green age of 10. However, the marriage, as is stated in the book, is not consummated until the children are fifteen. This part of the tale was related in a very bitter fashion.
After that bit of information, the author, said to be Hong herself at this point, continuously goes on long tangents about her slightly deranged father-in-law, her husband who never had a father’s loving care and herself, who she looks upon as a very pathetic character at least early on.
I must say this set-up is intriguing me. I’m very excited to read the second half of the novel and follow a different character discovering the life of this princess.
Well, that’s all I know for now. I shall report any new findings post-haste.
Ciao!
