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Peony in Love: A Novel | 
| Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $6.00
You Save: $8.00 (57%)
New (52) Used (44) Collectible (2) from $4.03
Avg. Customer Rating:  93 reviews
Sales Rank: 1436
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0812975227
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780812975222
ASIN: 0812975227
Publication Date: February 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
“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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 88 more reviews...
 I loved it, absolutely loved it July 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a beautiful book. Not only is the story beautiful, but it offers glimpses into Chinese traditions and superstitions behind how the dead and ancestors are treated. As a Chinese American, I grew up with these traditions but never knew the reasons behind them, my Mother always just said "We do it because that's how we've always done it." - this book gave me the long awaited answers to how those traditions and beliefs came about.
time traveling July 6, 2008
I visit China several times a year for business and thoroughly enjoyed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I was curious if lightning could strike twice for See and it has. Her storytelling is masterful, evoking the netherworld in a tangible way. I finished the book in one (albeit long) plane trip to Hong Kong and then saw the city (which is well known to me) through ancient eyes.
 Heartwrenching and Terrible July 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Lisa See creates a beautiful, palpable and completely predictable environment for her reader in Peony in Love. The settings and emotions were so evocative that I couldn't turn away from them. Yet...the plot twists aren't twists at all, and left me feeling more than a bit unfulfilled.
As I flipped from page to page, I couldn't help but know what was coming, and that I was being dragged on in a stagnant plot as See created nothing but filler. Even as the tale trudges on, the filler becomes no less obvious.
The entire beginning had built up to something amazing - whether amazingly happy, beautiful or sad was left to be seen. Instead of culminating with a breakthrough, it fell short to predictability.
A lovely book June 29, 2008
I really enjoyed this beautifully written book. Ms. See uses words like a skilled painter uses color, creating scenes that the reader can visualize and feel a part of. Peony is an effective narrator who makes the reader care about the people she loves--and this book really is about Peony in love. Her love isn't merely the romantic love that you might think; it's obsessive and all-consuming, and the book's exploration of it is thorough. Also thoroughly explored is filial love, especially that between mothers and daughters.
In several narrative threads, tragedy results from women's traditional, circumscribed roles--tragedy for the women, that is. Ms. See creates a sisterhood between women, achieved through a genuine understanding of their culture's (lack of) appreciation for them and their cultural contributions.
Two things, I thought, fell short. Tan Ze's character isn't developed in a way that's believable (I can't say more without spoiling the plot). Secondly, there are a few narrative contradictions--noticeable, but not fatal; they're the sort of things a good editor should have caught.
Read this book! It will make you think about a lot of things.
Nice read, interesting topic June 17, 2008
This is a fairly short novel about a girl in a well-to-do family in Qing Dynasty China (probably late 1600s-early 1700s). At first glance it's about first love gone awry but it's really much more...there's a big twist that happens in the first half of the book that entirely changes what the novel's about.
Themes go beyond romantic love towards family love, loyalty/obsession, and the value of letting go...framed in an interesting story about a contemporary literary work of the time. There's also subtheme about women writers (apparently the first novel published by a woman in the whole WORLD happened around this time in China, though I don't know how accurate that statement is.) The mood takes you from heartache, to melancholy, to redemption.
Lots of nice details and atmosphere put you right into the era. Some may be upset by scenes of footbinding and how it "increased" the value of women and was a part of female bonding...but you have to remember the cultural context. Someday people might look back to today's braces, heels, waxing etc. and think we were barbarous idiots.
The female characters are more strongly written than the male ones, who come off a little one-dimensional. This might be intentional considering our point of view comes from an extremely sheltered young girl who probably only saw certain sides of the few males she came into contact with.
Overall, I liked this better than Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (which came off as an Amy Tan knockoff to me.) Peony In Love is still a little cliched in its writing but not quite so overwrought as other women/historical fiction can be. If you're looking for a bodice-ripping beach read, this is not it ;) This is a bit deeper and just different (thanks to that twist) from your usual historical novel, and a great choice if you're interested in the lives of women in old China.
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