“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.
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