Outside A Dog

Having adored her earlier novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan [which was given to me by my dear Rachael], I was pretty eager to pick up Peony In Love by Lisa See. Peony is the coddled daughter of a wealthy seventeenth-century Hangzhou family, and shortly before her arranged marriage, she sneaks off to meet a handsome stranger who awakens in her strange, new emotions. Her love for this man and her obsession with an opera called The Peony Pavilion drastically change her life’s course. Peony comes to find herself in the afterworld, where she struggles to find her place and attempts to influence the lives of the people she loves, using the commentary she writes about The Peony Pavilion as a means of continuing to demonstrate that love. Over time — we’re talking years, here — Peony is able to learn from her mistakes and others around her and reflect upon and understand the many different kinds of love.

When I finished this fantastic story, I was amazed to find out how much of it was based on actual events. Lisa See did extensive research into the history of women’s writings in China in the mid-seventeenth century, and in her research, she came across The Three Wives’ Commentary, “the first book of its kind to have been published anywhere in the world to have been written by women” (author’s note, pg. 275). As she discovered more about the commentary and the opera it discusses, as well as the women who were impacted by them both, a story was born.

Peony’s story is absorbing, and contains a wealth of information about China’s cultural and historical past — for example: those pretty zig zag bridges (like this one)? There’s a functional meaning behind them. See’s characters and descriptions are vibrant and beautiful, and this book is easily one of my new favorites, even though I did spend the last couple of chapters in tears.