Peony in Love (2007) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

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• Peony: The main character, an upper class 16-year old girl.
• Chen Tong: Peony's new name. "Tong" means "same" in Chinese; she will be known as Tong because she has the same given name as her future mother in law.
• Baba / Master Chen: Peony's father, a loving and literate man who encourages Peony in her own literary pursuits.
• Mama / Madame Chen: Peony's mother, who is stern and sometimes has difficulty showing her very deep love for her only child Peony.
• Wu Ren: The 18-year-old poet with whom Peony is to have an arranged marriage. His father is a friend of Peony's father.
• Madame Wu: Wu Ren's widowed mother who lives with her son.
• Broom: Peony's chubby cousin that lives with her in the Chen family villa.
• Orchid: Peony's young cousin whose feet are just starting to be bound.
• Tan Ze: Commissioner Tan's spoiled daughter, who is 7 years younger than Peony. Marries Wu Ren.
• Commissioner Tan: A wealthy and prominent figure in the new Manchurian regime with whom Peony's father is attempting to curry favor.
• Madame Tan: Commissioner Tan's wife and Ze's mother.
• Madame Qian: The bound-footed upper-class woman who married beneath her station out of necessity after the Manchu invasion.
• Master Qian: Add a description of this character.
• Qian Yi: Master and Madame Qian's fifth daughter, the only one to be educated and have bound feet. She is Wu Ren's third wife
• Doctor Zhao: The physician who diagnoses Peony with lovesickness.
• Liniang: The fictional romantic heroine in the opera "The Peony Pavilion"
• Mengmei: The fictional romantic hero in the opera "The Peony Pavilion"
• Tang Xianzu: Author of The Peony Pavilion
• Grandmother: Peony's grandmother, revered by the family for killing herself rather than submitting to rape by the invading Manchus.
• Lin Yining
• Shen: Ren's niece
• Peony in Love: A maiden who became obsessed reading The Peony Pavilion, caught a case of lovesickness and dies.
• Li Shu: Ren's cousin
• Bao: Master Chen's adopted son
• Willow: Peony's maid

Quotes edit see section history

• “If only my tears of blood could dye red the blossoms of the plum tree”

  Words of a poem written on a wall in Yangzhou by an unknown woman during the Cataclysm.

• “You must remember that a plain face is given by Heaven, but poorly bound feet are a sign of laziness, not only of the mother but of the daughter as well.”

  Peony's Mother

• “When people are alive, they love. When they die, they keep loving. If love ends when a person dies, that is not real love.”

  Peony

• “In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.”

  Peony

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• deep-heart love meant loving someone in spite of and because of his limitations.

  Highlighted by 36 Kindle customers

• All women on earth—and men too, for that matter—hope for the kind of love that transforms us, raises us up out of the everyday, and gives us the courage to survive our little deaths: the heartache of unfulfilled dreams, of career and personal disappointments, of broken love affairs.

  Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers

• In love we have no control. Our hearts and minds are tormented, teased, enticed, and delighted by the overwhelming strength of emotions that make us try to forget the real world.

  Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers

• Every marriage encompasses six emotions: love, affection, hatred, bitterness, disappointment, and jealousy.

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• When people are alive, they love. When they die, they keep loving. If love ends when a person dies, that is not real love.

  Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers

• In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.

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• A thousand years ago, the poet Han Yun wrote, “All things not at peace will cry out.” He compared the human need to express feelings in writing to the natural force that impelled plants to rustle in the wind or metal to ring when struck.

  Highlighted by 18 Kindle customers

• Lacking pity, one is not human; lacking shame, one is not human; lacking a sense of deference, one is not human; lacking a sense of right and wrong, one is not human.”

  Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers

• Men are so sure of themselves, and they have such courage and conviction. They believe—truly believe—that they can make things happen just by speaking words, and in many cases they can.

  Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers

• A painting is form without shadow or reflection, just as a dream is shadow or reflection without form. A painting is like a shadow without a frame. It is even more of an illusion than a dream.

  Highlighted by 13 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Hangzhou
• Moon-viewing Pavilion
• Yangzhou
• West Lake
• Spring Pavilion
• Viewing Terrace
• Riding-the-wind Pavilion
• Heaven
• Gudang
• Solitary Island
• Wushan Mountain
• Iten

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Qing: Sentiment, passion, and love
• Li: Reason and mastered emotions

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Lovesick Maidens: Describe this theme.
• Forbidden Love
• Afterlife

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Lisa See (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Lisa See: Official Site of the Author - Peony in Love

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history