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Peony in Love

Peony in Love

Author(s): Lisa See

Location(s): China

Genre(s): Fiction, Historical

Era(s): 1600s

Location

Content

Peony has neither seen nor spoken to any man other than her father, a wealthy Chinese nobleman. Nor has she ever ventured outside the cloistered women’s quarters of the family villa. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, she finds herself betrothed to a man she does not know, but Peony has dreams of her own. Her father engages a theatrical troupe to perform scenes from “The Peony Pavilion”, a Chinese epic opera, in their garden amidst the scent of ginger, green tea and jasmine. ‘Unmarried girls should not be seen in public,’ says Peony’s mother, but her father allows the women to watch from behind a screen. Here, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man and is immediately bewitched. So begins her unforgettable journey of love, desire, sorrow and redemption.

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

‘If you liked Memoirs of a Geisha, you’ll love this. One to get lost in’ Eve ‘An absorbing tale of love in seventeenth-century China’ Woman and Home

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