The Peony Pavilion

A sixteen-year-old girl visits a forbidden garden and falls in love with her dream-lover and dies longing for him. After her death, her unflagging spirit continues to wait for her dream-lover. Does her lover really exist? Can a youthful love born of a garden dream ever blossom?

Based on a famous sixteen-century Chinese opera by Tang Xianzu, "the Shakespeare of China," the novel leads the reader into a mythical world of passion and romance. Its many fascinating characters include a failed scholar, a Taoist nun, a husband-wife rebel team, a dissolute emperor, and Tartar invaders from the North.