In 17th-century China, a land grappling with major political and societal shifts, Peony, a young girl approaching her 16th birthday and the day of her arranged marriage to a man she has never seen, becomes enraptured with the operatic love story “The Peony Pavilion.”
The tale of a teenage heroine who chooses her own fate and starves herself to death rather than give up the man she loves has inspired a wave of “lovesick maidens” who emulate her demise.
And in “Peony in Love,” a novel by Lisa See, the studious and sheltered Peony, who was born into a family of opulence and power, soon falls into their ranks after a chance meeting with a mysterious stranger – a handsome poet and the only man (save for her father) that she has ever met. Overwhelmed by her sudden feelings of love for her poet, and distraught at the thought of her arranged marriage, Peony forsakes all food and immerses herself in studying “The Peony Pavilion.”
On the eve of her would-be marriage, Peony dies from starvation. Instead of wedding preparations, her body is anointed by the rituals of death, her face covered in silk, coins and pieces of jade tucked by her side to safeguard her journey to the afterlife.
But death is not the end of the story – or of Peony’s journey. The richly detailed novel by See, who also wrote the 2005 best-seller “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” follows Peony into the afterlife where she discovers the power of the written word. In that sense, the young protagonist’s journey mirrors that of thousands of women in China at the time, which saw the birth of a new literary movement by women who were venturing out from behind cloistered gardens to take up pens and publishing.
See’s well-researched, carefully embroidered novel transports her reader into a world where women were pampered and preened but had little power over their lives or their fates. Along the way, she explores the contradictions of tradition, the complexities of love and family obligation, and the magical power that comes from a story well-told.
Like Peony’s journey of self-discovery, it’s a trip filled with unexpected lessons and literary rewards.
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