The Court Dancer is the story of Yi Jin who spent her childhood in the Korean royal palace in the mid 1800s. She worked both in the royal embroidery studio and as a court dancer from the age of 6 until the age of 23. When the French legate to Korea, Victor Collin de Plancy, announced that he had been ordered back to France, the King gave him Yi Jin as a gift, one that he could take back to France as a wife.
This is a slow moving story. While the author has painted rich details of Korean royal court life, I feel that it could have been written in fewer pages. It seemed to me that it would take 4 or 5 pages to tell what could have been told in one page. I quickly got bored with the book, then action occurred and I got interested again, and then bored again. This repeated for me throughout the book.
I was somewhat disappointed with the book. While I looked forward to what would happen next, the story moved too slow for me. Interest in the plot kept me reading though.
3 out of 5 stars!
The story opens with Yi Jin and Victor at the harbor boarding the ship that will take them to France. It then returns back to Jin as a child and tells how she came to the palace, learned her embroidery and dance skills, and her friendships with best friends Soa and Yeon and a friendship with a French missionary. When Victor meets her he falls madly in love with her. Jin falls in love with his library. The story forwards again to Jin in Paris where she is always the center of attraction due to her asian looks. She continues with her love of books by translating Korean books into French. However, she ultimately has too many adjustment problems and Victor takes her back to Korea.
This is a slow moving story. While the author has painted rich details of Korean royal court life, I feel that it could have been written in fewer pages. It seemed to me that it would take 4 or 5 pages to tell what could have been told in one page. I quickly got bored with the book, then action occurred and I got interested again, and then bored again. This repeated for me throughout the book.
I was somewhat disappointed with the book. While I looked forward to what would happen next, the story moved too slow for me. Interest in the plot kept me reading though.
3 out of 5 stars!
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