Back in 2008, I read
Lisa See’s interesting novel, Snow Flower
and the Secret Fan. The story, set
in China, thoroughly examined the role and treatment of women in 19th
century China. I had a vague notion of
“foot binding” but no detailed information.
After Googling images, I was horrified.
When a book club member suggested See’s 2007 novel, Peony in Love, I winced just a little. This time the author sets her story in 17th
century China. Embedded amongst all the
feet, the I discovered a love story like no other I have ever read. I forgot the feet and switched to the heart.
The Organization of
Chinese American Women named Lisa See the 2001 National Woman of the Year. She has written several novels, all of which
revolve around lost or covered up stories and the relationships among women.
Peony is a young
girl of about 15 – only weeks away from her marriage to the son of a moderately
well-off family. Peony has never seen
her intended, but at an intermission in an opera, The Peony Pavilion, she steps out and meets a handsome young man
and immediately falls in love. As her
wedding approaches, she fears a wizened old man would be her husband. She pines for her mysterious young man to the
point of starvation and exhaustion.
The array of unusual
customs and habits of the period staggers the imagination. After a meal, Peony hears a drum and cymbals
calling the women to the garden. Peony
is first out the door. See writes, “I
needed to proceed cautiously, fully aware that men who were not family members
stood within our walls tonight. If one
of them should chance to see me, I would be blamed and a bad mark set against
my character” (9). Hard for us to grasp
such a mindset in today’s society.
In addition to other
men, Peony has a deep and abiding commitment to respect and honor her
father. See writes, Peony ‘had lived
fifteen years without having committed a single act that anyone in my family
could call unfilial” (11). Peony becomes
a writer, commenting on the opera she has seen.
He father gives her a present.
“He went to a camphor-wood chest, opened it and pulled out something
wrapped in purple silk woven in a pattern of willow. When he handed it to me, I knew it was a
book. […] I loved books. I loved the
weight of them in my hands. I loved the
smell of ink and the feel of the rice paper.
‘Don’t fold over the edges of the page to mark your place,’ my father
reminded me. ‘Don’t scratch at the
written characters with your fingernails.
Don’t wet your finger with your tongue before turning the pages. An never use a book as a pillow” (25). A wise man indeed.
I did see one
anachronism, which I always enjoy finding in novels. Peony mentions “Piles of fruit […] in
cloisonné dishes” (52). While the
Chinese did produce dishes with pieces of metal that pooled glaze of a certain
color, the term, cloisonné first appeared in French in 1863. Peony could not have known that word, which
means “compartment.”
As a note in the
front of the novel explains, the opera, The
Peony Pavilion, was first produced and published in 1598. See based Peony on Chen Tong born about 1649. The
Three Wives Commentary on the opera, became the first book of its kind
written and published by women anywhere in the world. The factual basis for this story makes it all
the more horrific and wonderful. Lisa
See’s Peony in Love, is a wonderful
historical novel, which opens windows on a secretive and hidden period in
Chinese history. See has several other
novels, and I think I hear them calling from my PC. 5 stars
--Chiron, 5/1/15
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