"I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to
passion; in autumn only regret."
For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics
from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the
Chen Family Villa, amid the scent of ginger, green tea, and jasmine, a
small theatrical troupe is performing scenes from this epic opera, a
live spectacle few females have ever seen. Like the heroine in the
drama, Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family, trapped
like a good-luck cricket in a bamboo-and-lacquer cage. Though raised to
be obedient, Peony has dreams of her own.
Peony's mother is against her daughter's attending the production:
"Unmarried girls should not be seen in public." But Peony's father
assures his wife that proprieties will be maintained, and that the women
will watch the opera from behind a screen. Yet through its cracks, Peony
catches sight of an elegant, handsome man with hair as black as a
cave-and is immediately overcome with emotion.
So begins Peony's unforgettable journey of love and destiny, desire and
sorrow-as Lisa See's haunting new novel, based on actual historical
events, takes readers back to seventeenth-century China, after the
Manchus seize power and the Ming dynasty is crushed.
Steeped in traditions and ritual, this story brings to life another time
and place-even the intricate realm of the afterworld, with its
protocols, pathways, and stages of existence, a vividly imagined place
where one's soul is divided into three, ancestors offer guidance,
misdeeds are punished, and hungry ghosts wander the earth. Immersed in
the richness and magic of the Chinese vision of the afterlife,
transcending even death, Peony in Love explores, beautifully, the many
manifestations of love. Ultimately, Lisa See's new novel addresses
universal themes: the bonds of friendship, the power of words, and the
age-old desire of women to be heard.
